Customer Reviews

Rumi Past and Present, East and West

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Light a fire of love within your soul," Rumi tells us, "burn up these thoughts and words from head to toe" (p. 400). In his impressive, 686-page scholarly study of Jalal al-Din Rumi, Persian scholar Franklin Lewis illuminates the man behind the thirteenth century mystic poet and preacher. Through his meticulous research, Lewis, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, offers us "a glimpse" into Rumi's life, as well as new insights into Rumi's teachings, widely-popular poetry, and modern influence.

"Three short phrases tell the story of my life," Rumi said, "I was raw, I got cooked, I burned" (p. 404). Many of the biographical details of Rumi's life remain unknown. ""Most of what we know about Rumi," Lewis writes, "comes to us clouded by a heavy mist of myth and legend" (p. 272). We follow Rumi from his birth to an Islamic preacher in September, 1207 (p. 272) to his death on December 17, 1273 (p. 276). Along the way, Lewis reveals that his subject married at a young age, about seventeen (p. 320), fathered two children, pursued legal and religious studies in Aleppo and Damascus (p. 273), became a lawyer or professor of law (pp. 123, 274), married again (after his first wife died) and fathered at least two more children (p. 320) before his death. Lewis also examines Rumi's relationship with Shams al-Din Tabrizi, the encounter that transformed Rumi's spirituality; "he became more ecstatic in his worship, expressing his love for God not only in a careful attitude of self-renunciation and control, but also through the joy of poetry, music and meditative dance" (p. 274). Rumi and Shams became "Sufi Bohemians," tasting life for themselves. Their path involved "disciplining and training one's soul, watching over one's heart and concentrating the mind on God" (p. 34). Rumi tells us that "the law of religion is like a candle that shows us the way; without that candle we cannot even set foot on the spiritual path. Once the way is lit with the light of the law, the wayfarer begins his spiritual quest" (p. 37). When Shams disappeared mysteriously, we witness Rumi's "frenetic quest to recover the vision of this spiritual guide turned inward" to the point where Rumi discovers Shams "within himself" (p. 275). Inspired by this remarkable relationship, Rumi composed more than 60,000 lines of verse (p. 314). Lewis includes a sampling of fifty Rumi poems in his book.

Lewis tells us that his book should be considered a starting point, at best, for understanding Rumi. Although it should not be considered "the final and definitive biography of Rumi," Lewis writes, it is "intended, then, as a kind of Rumi bible, a manual for anyone interested in the life, poetry, teachings and influence of Jalal al-Din Rumi, who has been called the greatest poet of mankind. The whirling dervishes plant one foot on the floor with their toes fixed around a wooden peg and turn in Rumi's memory. In like manner, I hope this book will help ground all lovers of Rumi as they circle, moth-like, around the flame of his works" (pp. 8-9).

G. Merritt

A friend of mine loaned me this book last week to read. Being a great lover of Rumi's poetry, I was ecstatic to have a look at it. The author covers the early life of Rumi, his life in Konya, the great masters who taught him. I was stuck by the copious scholarly notes, the accumulated detail of Mr. Lewis' sources, all annotated.

There is a full chronology of the author's life, his family, his Sufi roots, his writings. There exists a number of pages of pure poetry in clear, modern, unrhymed translations. Examples from the Mithwani, Rumi's epic, and the lyric poetry. But make no mistake, this is not a book about only the poetry, it is, without a doubt, the finest scholarly approch to Rumi's life, filled with Persian accents on proper names, sometimes a little difficult to get through, but these were the names. I advise taking notes on the proper names because they appear often and are unusual to the English reader.

There is no finer book on this subject and must be read by anyone who loves Rumi. It is not easy reading, yet beautifully printed in the British style. Gorgeously done.

Franklin Lewis's scholarly approach to the life, teachings, and poetry of Rumi is quite refreshing in this New Age era. The summary above includes my general sentiments, although I found the accents helpful in learning to pronounce the proper names. My favorite part of the book was the analysis of the Rumi "translations." I also enjoyed the fresh translations included in this book and would like to see more. Overall, an A+ approach for those of you who want a serious Rumi work.

Rumi's works are valuable as social science in their reference to psychological development (the journey of soul). In order to understand Rumi, one must take a classical hermeneutical stance to uncover his intended meanings. This can only be done well if one understands Rumi himself. Franklin Lewis' text is now the greatest aid in so doing: there is no other extant text that gives such a thorough and accurate portrait of Rumi. It offers in-depth description and analysis of his antecedents, as well as the 13th century contemporary influences on his own psychological development. Other than Rumi's works themselves, no other book has been written that allows such insight into who he really was. Professor Lewis has written a work that is an invaluable aid in hermeneutically understanding Rumi, and in providing a richness of context through which one can better decode Rumi's own meaning-making.

If I could give this book TEN STARS, I would. Prof. Franklin Lewis has done a superlative job in bringing out different facets of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi and his father Baha al-Din, his mentor Borhan al-Din, his charismatic awakener Shams al-Din, along the way clearing up various myths and baseless rumors about these men. Not only does Prof. Lewis paint a full picture of the context for Rumi's development, he gives us a long, in-depth analysis of various phases of Mawlana's life, then provides a shorter "recap" synopsis of his career; presents us with exciting, authentic translations of 50 Rumi poems; gives us a candid assessment of various translators old and new of Rumi's works; outlines the interesting history of the manuscripts of his works; traces the history of the Mevlevi Order; and much more (among other things, I was grateful for his mention of the excellent but relatively unknown Rumi translator Ibrahim Gamard, whose website on Rumi is a goldmine of excellent scholarly translations of many sections of the Masnavi, the Divan, etc. And while your at it, also see Iranian-American poet Zara Houshmand's excellent rhyming translations of Rumi's quatrains at www.iranian.com)

Anyone at all interested in Mawlana in more than a passing fashion simply MUST have Prof. Lewis' Rumi book on their shelves. What a treasure trove!

Now, here's hoping that Prof. Lewis will turn his considerable talents to expand his doctoral dissertation on Hakim Sana'i (d.1131) into a lengthy book on that great Persian Sufi poet-sage (who was such an inspiration to Rumi). And, maybe further down the road, he'll bring us books on Farid al-Din Attar and the later Persian poet Hafiz?? Here's hoping...

Just this one fine book on Rumi is a lifetime achievement.

Of the many books witten in different western languages about Rumi and his teachings,this is, without doubt ,the best that I have read.As one who grew up reading Rumi in it's original version in Persian (Farsi,as it is called these days)I could not stop admiring the fluency and accuracy of ihe traslations and the scholarly review of the history and the principles of Sufi mysticism. The Author has given a good overview of Western research and writings about Rumi which was a treat. After reading this book,ther should be no doubt that Rumi was A Persian and not a Turk or Afghani.

I thoroughly enjoyed this very informative book on Rumi, which was chalked-full of information. What was striking was how easily the book read despite the plethora of information and detailed annotation. It is difficult to say what I liked most, but I've narrowed it down to Lewis's fresh translations and the history of Rumi's Sufi order. I am looking forward to Lewis's next work.

I agree with the other reviewers that the scholarship that went into creating this biography of Rumi and his historical era was exceptional. The level of detail present in this book would be hard to come by in a biography of a more recent historical figure.

My one issue with this book is the general lack of Rumi's poems. I would estimate that there were about 30 or so full poems translated in this book. Clearly, the writer's focus was on Rumi's life, but why title it "...The Life, Teachings and Poetry..." if only to include a brief sampling of the poet's works. Rumi was a mystical poet who translated his life and religious understanding into his work. Without a greater breadth of his work, it is hard to understand who he is. I was all the more disappointed by this because the translations in the book were excellent. He wisely decided to translate the content into a lyrical form suitable to English rather than trying to imitate the original Persian poetic forms that Rumi used.

I feel like this book could have been more complete with more poems. Don't buy this book expecting to read much of his work. Buy this book if you want detailed scholarship on Rumi, his teachers, and his times.

Rumi has been a major literary force in America for nearly 20 years now. Carefully crafted translations, versions of his poems are more universally popular than most contemporary poet's work. His imagery and mystical fervor inspires and informs the hearts of lovers everywhere, yet there has been very little accessible scholarly work available about the Sufi and his life and times for many years. Most accounts of Rumi have stayed toward the legendary rather than the critical and historical account of his life. With Lewis work we are given a wonderfully fulsome account of the scholarly work about Rumi, not just in English but throughout the world. Lewis provides us with a critical account of his life and times as well as a brief history of the Sufi order that has thrived in his name. This work is now the best thorough introduction to the poet and mystic both for scholars and public. Highly recommended.

It is hard to review this book. Althought it is supremely scholarly, it ironically enough falls within the classic trap it discusses: too much scholarliness, not enough spirituality. The author never met a fact he didn't like and put into this book. Whole chapters discuss the second cousins and third generation disciples and whatnot. The book is nearly 700 pages long, telling you everything you ever wanted to know about everything remotely connected to Rumi (though we never do get his shoe size, dang!) but there are only two chapters that really are of interest -- one chapter of poetry translations, and one on his teachings. That's about 50 pages. There is a huge amount of repetition -- no editor seems to have been in touch with this book -- and long lists that could easily have been in footnotes. The only redeeming quality of the other 650 pages is that the author quite sardonically eviscerates the various pseudo-translations, tells us which scholars did what and has a lot to say about the weird folk who have adopted Sufism. So a couple of stars. But if you want this author at his best, go straight to his volume of translations -- Swallowed by the Sun.