Rumi

Biography

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih (jurist), Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian (metakaolin), and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.

Rumi's works were written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic, and Greek in his verse. His Masnavi (Mathnawi), composed in Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language.

Rumi's influence has transcended national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Afghans, Tajiks, Turks, Kurds, Greeks, Central Asian Muslims, as well as Muslims of the Indian subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poetry influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Pashto, Kurdish, Urdu, and Bengali languages.

Rumi's works are widely read today in their original language across Greater Iran and the Persian-speaking world. His poems have subsequently been translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet", is very popular in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and South Asia, and has become the "best-selling poet" in the United States.