Image from Wikimedia Commons

This place, Dergah^*, did actually exist during the era of Rumi (1229-1273) when social and religious intolerance were at its peak across eastern and western borders of Anatolia. From the west, the Crusaders left a trace of bloodshed; from the east, Genghis Khan and his brutal army of Mongols overwhelmed Rumi’s hometown, Balkh, in 1220, putting its occupants to the sword and destroying the city with its more than seven miles of outer walls. Fortunately, Rumi’s father foresaw the coming of the Mongol horde, took his family west into Roman Anatolia in 1219, and then arrived at Iconium (Konya, one of Turkey’s larger providence today) in 1229¹ where Rumi established his Dergah.

Rumi was a born Muslim, but in the conventional sense he was not a religious man. The Whirling Dervishes^** and his progressive thinking were certainly not in the teachings of the Koran. He received harsh criticism from his friends for these unconventional methods. Rumi was not a ceremonial man, he instructed his friends not to build a tomb after his death. If you happen to visit Konya to see the Whirling Dervishes you shall find this epitaph on his tomb (ah yes, they built one!): “When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.” Rumi’s God was all encompassing, a universal God. Rumi did not worship God, he adored Him. Scholars inform us that this adoration and deep love of God reflected in almost all of his monumental 50,000 verses of lyric odes (ghazal) and quatrains (rubaiyât) and his other works. Because of this deeply embedded universal love, it was impossible for him to discriminate humans and other creatures in that matter. And because of this love, he became the champion of brotherhood. As told by Fatemeh Keshavarz, professor of Persian language and literature at Washington University in St. Louis, “He doesn’t try to describe mystical love, he tries to linguistically show it to us.” “He mirrors his experience of mystical love.”²

Shiva, who is fluent in Farsi and has published four books of Rumi poetry, warns us that “there are two ways of comparing any work of literature from one culture to another—one is literal and the other is what I call lyrical. With literal translation comes a certain degree of commitment to honesty. With lyrical translation, it is open to the artist’s or poet’s whim. If that’s understood, then it’s OK that a poet takes liberties.”³ Shiva’s concern does not pose a problem in understanding the essence of Rumi as every piece of his work reflects celebration of profound love and liberty. Regardless of the source, target language, and the skills of the translator, these elements are an undebatable part of Rumi’s writings:

Here we see a transcending Rumi, a far reaching man from Sufism (a branch of Islam) to Buddhism, from Christianity to Judaism. Rumi was almost magical in transforming his mystical experience to utilitarian brotherhood and religious tolerance. Rumi reached the very heart and soul of all the people around him because he knew how to touch, how to affect in his own words. He knew how to melt his readers on the subjects of tolerance and brotherhood. In his life long campaign, his writings always escalated towards the cause of tolerance and brotherhood, and this simultaneously appealed to Christians, Jews, and other minorities around him as they readily found these qualities in their own religions. When Rumi died, despite the protests of local Muslim clerics, perhaps for the first time in history, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and other minorities were present to show their respect for the last time. As humanitarian elements, transcending all religious dispositions at the time, brotherhood and religious tolerance had never been celebrated this way before.

In a country where Pulitzer Prize-winning poets often struggle to sell 10,000 books, Barks, who has studied Rumi’s poetry for more than 25 years, sold at least a quarter million copies of translations of Rumi, and recordings of Rumi poems have made it to Billboard’s Top 20 list. Eight hundred years later, the United States embraced Rumi and his humanitarian values as one of his own, while the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared 2007 as the International Year of Rumi in attribute to his 800 birthday (1207- 1273).⁵

References and Footnotes:

¹ http://www.naqshbandi.org/events/articles/rumi_schwartz.htm

² http://www.colemanbarks.com/press/news.php?n=7

³ http://www.rumi.net/Rumi_SFC.htm

⁴ http://www.kyotojournal.org/kjback/66/rumi.html

⁵ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/faithvalues/2003694318_religionrumi05.html

^*In Rumi’s time, Dergah, or Tekke, was a place where highest ethical, scientific, and theological (Sufism) teachings were offered. Also it served as a place of protection, asylum and as a retreat, as Rumi extended his invitation to all people around him. Beginning in the 20th century, Tekkes were corrupted and closed. http://nedir.antoloji.com/dergah/

^**After Rumi’s death, Whirling Dervishes, one of several Sufi orders that hold Rumi in prominent regard, was founded by his followers. They are known as the Whirling Dervishes for their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). According to legend, when Rumi threw off his turban and robe and started to whirl jubilantly on the street, locals thought he was mad; yet this is how it all started, the eternal dance of the Dervishes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is having a special exhibition on Rumi and the Sufi tradition through February 3.