There are many sides to Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī - scholar, preacher, saint, mystic, love poet, didactic poet, and spiritual master - but the version of him that became the best-selling poet in North America lacks authenticity.
’Everyone has, in their view, become my close friend;
but they have not sought out the secrets within me.’
-- From Rūmī’s Masnavī
This new anthology is freshly translated and supplemented with commentaries, and also includes selected texts in Persian. The aim is to bring readers a full appreciation of the true, traditional nature of his work- and to the man himself as a great Muslim teacher and spiritual guide.
Besides illustrating the traditional basis of Jalāl al-Dīn’s teachings, this Treasury displays his unique literary genius as well as his profundity as one of the world’s greatest religious writers, whose voice speaks as clearly and compellingly today as it did in the 7th/13th century.
A Treasury of Rumi has been used as teaching material in courses and lectures by at least four university professors and/or leading imams in North America.