Maulana Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī - The Masnavi. Book 2 [electronic resource]

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).

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics have brought readers closer to the worlds great literature. Now with over 700 titlesfrom the 4,000-year-old myths of Mesopotamia to the twentieth centurys greatest novelsthe series makes available lesser-known as well as celebrated writing.

The pocket-sized hardbacks of the early years contained introductions by Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, and other literary figures which enriched the experience of reading. Today the series is recognized for its fine scholarship and reliability in texts that span world literature, drama and poetry, religion, philosophy, and politics. Each edition includes perceptive commentary and essential background information to meet the changing needs of readers.

Refer to the to navigate through the material in this Oxford Worlds Classics ebook. Use the asterisks (*) throughout the text to access the hyperlinked Explanatory Notes.

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

JALAL AL-DIN RUMI

BOOK TWO

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
JAWID MOJADDEDI

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offices in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

Jawid Mojaddedi 2007

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Data available

Typeset by Cepha Imaging Private Ltd., Bangalore, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

ISBN 9780199212590

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

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.