Rumi : a spiritual biography PDF
Preview Rumi : a spiritual biography
LESLIE WINES LEGACIES ALSO IN THE LIVES & LEGACIES SERIES: DIETRICH BoNHOFFER by Christian Feldman DUKE ELLINGTON by Janna Tull Steed FRANTZ FANON by Patrick Ehlen JoAN OF ARc by Siobhan Nash-Marshall FRIDA KAHLO by Jack Rummel ROBERT F. KENNEDY by Konstantin Sidorenko JACK KEROUAC by Ken Caffrey Jr. MAIMONIDES by Ilil Arbel MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS by Carol Schaefer POPE JOHN XXIII by Christian Feldman HENRY OSSAWA TANNER by Marcus Bruce SERIES EDITOR: BARBARA LEAH ELLIS LESLIE WINES Rumi A Spiritual Biography A Crossroad 8th Avenue Book The Crossroad Publishing Company New York The Crossroad Publishing Company 481 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1550 New York, 1'.'Y 10001 First published in 2000 by The Crossroad Publishing Company Copyright © 2000 by Leslie \Vines LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA \Vines, Leslie. Rumi: a spiritual biography/ by Leslie \Vines. p. cm. - (Lives & Legacies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8245-2352-0 l.Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana, 1207-1273. 2. Mevleviyah members-Biography. 3. Sufis-Biography. 4. Poets, Persian-Biography. I. Title. BP189.7.M-l2 W56 2000 297.4'092-dc2 l [BJ 00-011300 Printed in the United States of America Set in Janson Designed and produced hy SCRIBES Editorial Cover design hy Kaeser and \Vilson Design Ltd. All rights resen·ed. No part of this hook may he reproduced, stored in a retrie\'al system, or trans1nittcd, in any fonn or by any means, electronic, 111cchanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossro.1d Publishing Company. 2 3 -l 5 6 7 8 9 10 03 02 01 00 00 to my parents CONTENTS I. The Poet of Love and Tumult 13 2. A Harsh Childhood of Few Facts 23 3. A King With No Dominion 33 4. The Never-Ending Journey 47 5. Konya, At Long Last 57 6. Friend to Kings and Ruffians 71 7. A Love So Divine 81 8. Life After Love: The Departure of Shams 107 9. Mad for Music 123 10. The Most Digressive Story Ever Told 147 11. Death Dervish-Style 157 Acknowledgements 171 Chronology 172 Notes 180 Bibliography 184 Index 186 Rumi and one of his young disciples, Hosam al-Din Chelebi. (Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resources) I The Poet of Love and Tumult The meaning of poetry has no sureness of direction; it is like the sling, it is not under control. -Jnlalu'ddin Rmni JALALU'DDIN RUM!, THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY Persian lawyer divine and Sufi, widely considered literature's greatest mystical poet, understood very well the uncontrollable and idiosyncratic impact of poetry. Yet one wonders if even he, for all his intuitive grasp of language, humanity and the cosmos foresaw the deep and diverse influence his own work would have on readers throughout the world seven centuries after his death--or the myriad meanings enthusiasts would draw from his sprawling and contradictory poems. In the Islamic world today, Rumi is read for much the same reasons he was revered during his life: for his excellence as a poet; for his rare ability to empathize with humans, animals and plants; for his personal refinement; and, above all else, for his flawless moral center and ability to direct others towards good conduct and union with Allah. Rumi's work also has been read in the West for centuries and there have been informed references to him in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and many other eminent writers. But in recent years the popularity of his work in the West has inc_reased to a surprising extent: according 13 Leslie Wines to the Christi1111 Science A1onitor, Rumi ranked as America's best selling poet in 1997. His biography, or at least the highlights of his difficult but victorious life, should prove as inspiring as his poetry to his diverse and growing readership. The key events of Rumi's life-or those that appear to have shaped his poetry to a great extent-seem to have been his inse cure childhood spent with his family roaming between countries at the time of the Mongol invasion; his close relationship with his father, the mystic Baha al-Din; his great popularity as an Islamic professor; and his unusually intense spiritual and emo tional love for the dervish Shams al-Din of T.1briz. Many \Vestern readers prize his work less as a moral lodestar and resource for merging with the Absolute, and more as a vehicle for illuminating our own highly secular age. Although, to be sure, these readers also arc drawn to the ecstatic and transcendental qualities of the great mystic's work. \Vestcrn admirers tend to extract Rumi from his historical context and embrace him as one of their own. Not a few have seized on his poetry as a springboard for their own creative expressions, including New York clothes designer Donna Karan, who in 1998 unveiled her spring line of fashions while musical interpretations of Rumi's work by the health writer Dccpak Chopra played in the background. Composers Philip Glass and Robert \Vilson have written "Monsters of Grace," an operatic extravaganza that can he enjoyed with three-dimen sional viewing glasses and a libretto of one hundred and fourteen Rumi poems interpreted by American poet Coleman Barks. Quick-thinking American entrepreneurs seem to devise new means to capitalize on Rumi's soaring popularity nearly every month. Recently, several versions of"Rumi cards," a new method of fortune-telling, combining snippets of the poet's work and aspects of the 'Et rot, have appeared in U.S. bookstores. And, for those who peruse the \Vorld \Vide \ \'ch, it is possible to dial up H
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