|
The renowned Persian mystical poet, Mowlana Roumi
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 5th of the Islamic month of Jamadi al-Akher, in 661 AH, the renowned Persian mystical poet, Mowlana Jalal od-Din Mohammad Balkhi, also known as Mowlavi and Roumi, passed away at the age of 67 in Konya, in what is now Turkey.
He was born in Balkh in eastern Khorasan, which part is now in present day Afghanistan. The Mongol invasion forced his father to migrate to Baghdad in Iraq, from where Mowlavi went to Damascus in Syria, before settling in Konya in Anatolia, which was once part of the Eastern Roman Empire, hence his epithet of Roumi.
He became an acclaimed religious scholar. In 642 AH, a meeting with the wandering Iranian Dervish or mystic, Shams-e Tabrizi, completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, he was transformed into an ascetic.
He started a spiritual purification and created his eternal works, the masterpiece of Persian mystical poetry, known “Mathnawi Ma'nawi”, which contains over 150,000 rhymed verses.
He also compiled his spiritual teacher's poems in what is known as Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi that contains some 35,000 Persian couplets and 2000 quatrains, in addition to 90 Ghazals or lyrics in Persians and 19 quatrains in Arabic, as well as a couple of dozen couplets in mixed Persian and Turkic and 14 couplets in mixed Greek and Persian.
The Mathnawi has been translated into English and other major world languages. The translation in English verse was done by Reynold Nicholson, along with explanations, in 8 volumes.
|
