Rumi Jalal al-Din - Masnavi: Book Two

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

THE MASNAVI

RUMI, known in Iran and Central Asia as Mowlana Jalaloddin Balkhi, was born in 1207 in the province of Balkh, now the border region between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. His family emigrated when he was still a child, shortly before Genghis Khan and his Mongol army arrived in Balkh. They settled permanently in Konya, central Anatolia, which was formerly part of the Eastern Roman Empire (Rum). Rumi was probably introduced to Sufism originally through his father, Baha Valad, a popular preacher who also taught Sufi piety to a group of disciples. However, the turning-point in Rumis life came in 1244, when he met in Konya a mysterious wandering Sufi called Shamsoddin of Tabriz. Shams, as he is most often referred to by Rumi, taught him the profoundest levels of Sufism, transforming him from a pious religious scholar to an ecstatic mystic. Rumi expressed his new vision of reality in volumes of mystical poetry. His enormous collection of lyrical poetry is considered one of the best that has ever been produced, while his poem in rhyming couplets, the Masnavi, is so revered as the most consummate expression of Sufi mysticism that it is commonly referred to as the Quran in Persian.

When Rumi died, on 17 December 1273, shortly after having completed his work on the Masnavi, his passing was deeply mourned by the citizens of Konya, including the Christian and Jewish communities. His disciples formed the Mevlevi Sufi order, which was named after Rumi, whom they referred to as Our Lord (Turkish Mevlana/Persian Mowlana). They are better known in Europe and North America as the Whirling Dervishes, because of the distinctive dance that they now perform as one of their central rituals. Rumis death is commemorated annually in Konya, attracting pilgrims from all corners of the globe and every religion. The popularity of his poetry has risen so much in the last couple of decades that the Christian Science Monitor identified Rumi as the most published poet in America in 1997. UNESCO has designated the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Rumis birth in 2007 as an event of major international importance.

JAWID MOJADDEDI, a native of Afghanistan, is currently Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers University. Dr Mojaddedis translation, The Masnavi: Book One (Oxford, 2004), was awarded the Lois Roth Prize by the American Institute of Iranian Studies. His previous books include The Biographical Tradition in Sufism (Richmond, 2001) and, as co-editor, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature (London, 2003).

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

JALAL AL-DIN RUMI

BOOK TWO

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
JAWID MOJADDEDI

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To Dr Javad Nurbakhsh

I SHOULD like to express my gratitude to my immediate family, my friends, and all of the teachers I have studied under. I am also very grateful for the comments and criticisms offered by readers of initial drafts of this translation, especially Julie Scott Meisami, Dani Kopoulos, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, and Dick Davis. Once again, I have been very fortunate to work with an editor as supportive and cooperative as Judith Luna. I alone am responsible for any remaining flaws.

THE MASNAVI
BOOK TWO

Rumis Masnavi is probably the longest mystical poem ever written by a single author from any religious tradition. It consists of about 26,000 verses, divided into six books. The current volume is a translation of the second book of the Masnavi, and follows Book One, also published in Oxford Worlds Classics. Although Books One and Two are component units of the Masnavi, they are also complete poems in themselves.

Much has been written on Rumi and his Masnavi. However, one point which has not been explored extensively is its organizational framework. Would Rumi have had an overall framework in mind when he compiled this long and complex poem? The richness of the Masnavi makes it very hard to draw any definitive conclusions. On the one hand, that Rumi divided his poem into six books of roughly equal length, each with its own distinct introduction, may suggest an overall framework of some kind. On the other, Rumis many digressions, as well as his emphasis on the divine origin of his poetry, can give the impression that he did not feel constrained by any particular framework.