Rumi: The Fire of LoveA Novel [Hardcover]

Nahal Tajadod (Author), R. Bononno (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2008

What torments the souls of men? What would lead a respected scholar and preacher to suddenly lock himself away in a room with a strange man for forty days and nights--and then to spring forth illuminated, dancing, ignited with passion and knowledge? What leads a solemn scholar to become Rumi, the great Sufi poet and creator of the whirling dervish dance--one of the most important figures in world literature?

In Rumi: The Fire of Love, acclaimed writer Nahal Tajadod brings to vivid life this ages-old tale of metamorphosis and creative fire. Since the thirteenth century, the story of Rumi and his fifty thousand unforgettable verses has mesmerized the world. Herself a renowned translator of Rumi into French, Tajadod does not hesitate to lift even the most intimate veils. Breathing new life into the mystical and carnal Orient of old, Tajadod delves into the soul of artistry and, embodying the mind of the great poet, uncovers the divine passion of Rumi's work--and beautifully displays that when the body and soul stop fighting against one another, they burn from the same flame.

Already in production as a motion picture, Rumi: The Fire of Love is a breathtaking work of modern passion in a longago time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This fictionalized biography of 13-century Turkish Sufi mystic Djalal al-din Mohammad Balkhi, known as Rumi, lingers over the creative relationships that gave rise to his mystical writings and leaves the mystery that surrounds them in place. Rumi's student, scribe and early biographer Hesam, who narrates, begins his tale with the most infamous of these relationships: the friendship between the serene Rumi and Mohammed Malekdad, aka Shams of Tabriz. The first meeting of Rumi and Shams is explosive: the two immediately retire to a locked room for 40 days. Upon emerging, Rumi rejects bookish religion and initiates the sama, the spiritual dance that lends his sect their nickname of whirling dervishes. More conventional Muslims are appalled: they drive Shams away from Konya, but the pining Rumi eventually tracks Shams down in Damascus and has him brought back. The anti-Shams faction conspires to murder him—or does he simply, miraculously, disappear? Rumi later transfers his spiritual affections to Hesam, and together they create Rumi's poetic magnum opus, the Masnavi-yi Ma'navi. An émigré from Tehran to Paris, Tajadod includes a plethora of parables, miracles, cryptic sayings and mystic poetry throughout. She sensitively illustrates Rumi's spiritualism and circles carefully around the male relationships at the core of Rumi's life. (Aug.) ""
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From Booklist

Rumi’s poems of rapturous love are cherished the world over, but the full story of his metamorphosis from religious scholar to mystic and Sufi founder who “flaunted all of Islam’s prohibitions” has been sanitized. Tajadod, a translator of the thirteenth-century Persian’s poet work, uses fiction as a vessel for truth, vividly imagining Rumi’s sexual and spiritual awakenings and the controversies ignited by his radical faith while insightfully mapping the nexus between creativity and divinity. Handsome young Hesam, a loyal disciple and skilled eavesdropper and scribe, chronicles all the “strange and unpredictable” events set in motion by the love of Rumi’s life, Shams of Tabriz, the tall, thin, and irascible sage who draws Rumi away from his books and marriage and into the sama, the sacred dance of the whirling dervishes. Hesam witnesses the suffering and power struggles in Mongol-occupied Konya and within Rumi’s circle as wives struggle to accept their husbands’ bisexuality and ecstatic spirituality. And all is exalted by Rumi’s fiery poetry, in which eroticism is holy, and pain and longing are transmuted into prayer and joy. --Donna Seaman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; First American Edition edition (September 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590200802
• ISBN-13: 978-1590200803
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,437,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure poetry..., October 29, 2008

By 

davi strand "davi strand" (brooklyn, ny) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rumi: The Fire of LoveA Novel (Hardcover)

This is such a beautiful and inspiring read. I was completely transported. If you are trying to find the perfect book to take you away from the holiday stress, you can stop searching now.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nice story full of inaccuracy and distortion of facts, April 15, 2009

By 

Omer Colakoglu (Istanbul, TURKEY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rumi: The Fire of LoveA Novel (Hardcover)

I'm nearly halfway so haven't finished reading it yet, but what I have read so far provides me with an ample amount of information to comment on this story written by what I believe to be a sincere writer who knows next to nothing about Mawlana Muhammad Jelaluddin Rumi.

The book continually dwells on Shams who is inaccurately portrayed as an utterly eccentric being given to a certain set of unexpected reactions to everything happening around him, and as a man who is very capricious and persnickety. Such external expressions of the carnal soul which mirror the hidden vices in an "untamed" person don't exist even in a newly-initiated disciple! A real sufi makes continuous efforts to refrain from being a burden on others. This wrongfully distorted Shams figure keeps harrassing those around him with his unending stupid wishes and is shown to be the only person who helped Rumi to transform into a zealous lover of the divine (whatever it means) after renouncing his "former bigotry" allegedly stemming from the "rigidity" and "intolerance" of the Islamic Law. I don't have enough time or space to criticize the description of Rumi by the writer. I need to suffice it to say that Rumi had 7 important people in his life, just like the 7 colors of the rainbow. And Shams was only one of the colors in that rainbow, although a very bright one that stood out more as centuries went by. When Rumi met him, he was already a mature spiritual teacher, and needless to say, a very devoted follower of the prayerful daily life exemplified by the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him and all other prophets.

Those who deem it very difficult to restrain their carnal desires and find it impossible to learn the core of Islam, which is nothing but Sufism, and reshape their lives and behavior accordingly, have been trying to draw an inaccurate and completely distorted picture of Rumi particularly in the recent years after such people were most profoundly inspired by the "versionized" translations of Coleman Barks who naturally appealed to a great number of non-Muslim westerners as well as unpracticing Muslims with his "counterfeit" Rumi.

Even though Mrs. Tajadod claims to have based her story on the facts that she found in Manaqib'u-l Arifin - a kind of biographical work written by Aflaki, a dervish of Rumi's grandson Ulu Arif Chelebi - she apparently interspersed her story with innumerous false pieces of information that is highly likely to mislead the ordinary reader.

For those who want to extract genuine pearls of wisdom from the bottomless ocean of Rumi, I advice first learning about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, on whose path Rumi is -as he himself says - nothing but "mere dust," and then reading Rumi in the works of real Sufis such as Seyyed Hosein Nasr, Ibrahim Gamard and William Chittick who not only know Persian but also Islamic sciences in depth.

I'm definitely not against the writing of stories about such sublime personages, but I'm certainly against the conveying of such inaccurate information to people who are already very confused as to who to trust.
Not everybody who knows Persian has the right to write on Rumi, just like not everybody with a superb command of Arabic can read and understand the Holy Quran.

Unless one is acquainted with the real taste of the divine, one cannot possibly appreciate the value of such holy people. Real freedom is not having the right to do or write anything one likes, but it is not asking anything of anyone first and then renouncing your relative being by being continuously vigilant in practicing the divine commands as taught by the Prophet.

So, those who have read this book SHOULD NOT conclude that they have acquired some accurate information about Islam, Sufism or Rumi.

"I'm a slave of the Quran as long as I'm alive
I'm dust on the path of Muhammad, the chosen one,
And whoever relates from me anything other than this
I deplore him and his words"

Rumi