Life and work of Maulana Jalal Ud Din Rumi

Afzal Iqbal

Paperback, 330 Pages, Black & White
6 x 9 Inches
Qadeem Press

Rumi is perhaps the only example in world literature of a devoted prose writer who suddenly burst forth into poetry during middle age to become a truly great mystical poet for all time. This book, a long-overdue reckoning of his life and work, begins with a description and examination of the living conditions in 13th-century Persia.

Building on this context, Afzal Iqbal proceeds to fully analyse the formative period of Rumi’s life leading up to 1261―when he began the monumental work of writing the Mathnawi. Toward the end of the book, Iqbal more generally investigates Rumi’s thought and includes translations of those portions of the Mathnawi that have been hitherto unavailable in English.

Combining an unparalleled familiarity with the source material, a total and critical understanding of the subject, and a powerful and readable prose style, this is an extraordinary study of a truly remarkable poet and mystic.

Table of Contents:

1. The Age of Rumi (A.D. 1207-1273)

The tottering fabric of Muslim society

The onslaught from Christian Europe

The Crusaders-their hopes and fears

Some contradictions analysed

A glimpse of the Christian mind in the thirteenth century

Shifting from Europe to Asia

Meeting the challenge of the Mongols

The sack of Baghdad (1258)

Defeat of the Mongols in Egypt (1260)

The origin and character of the Mongols

The social and economic conditions of Persia under the Mongols

A parallel between the roles of Ghazali and Rumi

Shifting to Konya-the centre of Rumi’s activities

The rise of Saljuqs and the importance of Konya

2. The Period of Preparation (A.D. 1207-1244)

The story of his ancestors

The role of Baha-ud-Din, Rumi’s father

Life and Work of Rumi

His hostility towards philosophy and conflict with Fakhr-ud-Din Razi

Was Razi responsible for his exile from Balkh? The confusion about the dates of migration clarified

A royal invitation to settle in Konya

Rumi’s education under his father-contemporary syllabus of studies analysed

The end of one phase of education at the death of Rumi’s father and the beginning of another

An analysis of the intellectual horizon of Rumi at the age of thirty-four

Debt to Ghazali-a brief comparison

Debt to Sana’i and ‘Attar-Rumi sees himself as a successor to both

Rumi’s knowledge of Classical Islamic philosophy

Rumi heir to an impressive heritage of Sufism

Dhu’l-Nun al-Misri, hero of a story in the Mathnavi

Respect and admiration for Bayazid Bistami

Mathnavi replete with references to Ibrahim ibn Adham

Rumi’s defence of Mansur Hallaj

Classical Manuals of Sufism in the tenth century

Kashf-ul-Mahjub quoted copiously in the Mathnavi

A brief comparison and contrast with Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought

3. The Romance of Revolution (A.1. 1244-1250)

An account of Shams-i-Tabriz

Four different versions of Rumi’s meeting with Shams

The version Rumi’s son

The result of the resting

Rumi’s correspondence in verse with Shams

Reasons of Shams’s unpopularity with Rumi’s followers

Rumi’s new mode of life

The role of Salah-ud-Din Zarkob in this period

Rumi fails to find Shams but discovers himself

4. The Miracle of the Muse (A.D. 1245-1260)

Rumi becomes a poet at the age of thirty-seven Consideration of his collection of odes called Divan-i. Shams-i- Tabriz

A critical estimate of his lyrics

Characteristics of his lyrics

His universal appeal

5. The Message of the Mathnavi (A.D. 1261-1273)

A general summary

Nature of existence

Nature of knowledge

Free-will and determinism

Nature of Love

Nature of Reality

6. The Poet as a Thinker (A.D. 1261-1273)

The difference between his method and the method of philosophers

The relation between Love and intellect

The nature or the self

His conception of evolution

Some difficulties in this conception

Determinism and responsibility

Knowledge of God

The ideal Man