Rumi, who wrote and preached in Persia during the thirteenth century, was inspired by a wandering mystic, or dervish, named Shams al-Din. Rumi's vast body of poetry includes a lengthy poem of religious mysticism, the Mathnavi, and more than three thousand
2007 is the "Year of Rumi," and who better than Coleman Barks, Rumi's unlikely, supremely passionate ambassador, to mark the milestone of this great poet's 800th birthday? Barks, who was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in Persian language and liter
Avicenna was the greatest of all Persian thinkers; as physician and metaphysician alike he was closely studied in the Middle Ages and his Canon of Medicine was used as a text book down to the rise of modern medicine.
My verse resembles the bread of Egypt—night passes over it, and you cannot eat it any more.Devour it the moment it is fresh, before the dust settles upon it.Its place is the warm climate of the heart; in this world it dies of cold.Like a fish it quivere
