The Essential Rumi

By Coleman Barks, Rumi, Jalal Al-Din Rumi

Book Overview

Jelaluddin Rumi was born in 1207 and until the age of thirty-seven was a brilliant scholar and popular teacher. But his life changed forever when he met the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, of whom Rumi said, "What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being." From this mysterious and esoteric friendship came new heights of spiritual enlightenment. When Shams disappeared, Rumi began his transformation from scholar to artist, and his poetry began to take wing. To absorb the words of Jelaluddin Rumi is to feel oneself transported to the magical, mystical place of a whirling, ecstatic poet.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965064875
• ISBN13: 9780965064873
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Dark Age Games Company
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Poetic Enlightenment

Rumi (as he is known in the West), was known as Jelaluddin Balkhi by the Persians and Afghanis, from where he was born in 1207. Rumi means 'from Roman Anatolia', which is where his family fled to avoid the threat of Mongol armies. Being raised in a theological family, Rumi studied extensively in religion and poetry, until encountering Shams of Tabriz, a wandering mystic, with whom he formed the first of his intense, mystical friendships, so intense that it inspired jealously among Rumi's students and family. Shams eventually disappeared (most likely murdered because of the jealousy); Rumi formed later more mystical friendships, each with a different quality, which seemed essential for Rumi's creative output. Rumi was involved with the mystical tradition that continues to this day of the dervish (whirling dervishes are best known), and used it as a personal practice and as a teaching tool.This book has a deliberate task: 'The design of this book is meant to confuse scholars who would divide Rumi's poetry into the accepted categories.' Barks and Moyne have endeavoured to put together a unified picture that playfully spans the breadth of Rumi's imagination, without resorting to scholarly pigeon-holes and categorisations. 'All of which makes the point that these poems are not monumental in the Western sense of memorialising moments; they are not discrete entities but a fluid, continuously self-revising, self-interrupting medium.'Rumi created these poems as part of a constant, growing conversation with a dervish learning community. It flows from esoteric to mundane, from ecstatic to banal, incorporating music and movement at some points, and not at others, with the occasional batch of prose. 'Some go first, and others come long afterward. God blesses both and all in the line, and replaces what has been consumed, and provides for those who work the soil of helpfulness, and blesses Muhammad and Jesus and every other messenger and prophet. Amen, and may the Lord of all created beings bless you.'From the lofty sentiments...'There's a strange frenzy in my head,of birds flying,each particle circulating on its own.Is the one I love everywhere?'...to the simple observations...'Drunks fear the police,but the police are drunks too.People in this town love them bothlike different chess pieces.'Some poems take very mystic frameworks, such as the Sohbet. There is no easy English translation of Sohbet, save that it comes close to meaning 'mystical conversation on mystical subjects'. These poems become mystically Socratic, by a series of questions and answers, very simple on the surface, yet leading down to the depths of meaning. In the middle of the nightI cried out,"Who lives in this loveI have?"You said, "I do, but I'm not herealone. Why are these other imageswith me?"Rumi also has an elegant series called the Solomon Poems, in which King Solomon is the embodiment of luminous divine wisdom, and the Queen of Sheba is the bodily soul. This sets up a dynamic tension

Quite frankly, the most beautiful book I have ever read.

At the risk of cliche, if you only buy a single book this year, please do yourself a favor and make it "The Essential Rumi." Rumi is for Americans who think that Islam is all about harems and terrorists. A sultry serenade to God, Rumi's poetry explodes in the soul with a beautiful force that tears down the wall between the individual and the Divine. Jelaluddin Rumi was a 13th Century Sufi mystic, the founder of the so-called "whirling dervishes", whose inner exploration allowed him to attain a rare level of enlightenment and connection with God. His poems resonate with truth and wisdom so earnest that it is impossible not to be swept away on a tide of pure spiritual longing and fulfillment. This is a book for anyone who loves poetry, religion, God, or love. And if you don't love these things now, you will by the time you finish "The Essential Rumi."