Volume 49, Number 10 · June 13, 2002
Echoes of Rumi
By W.S. Merwin
Jalâl al-Din Rumi, who has long been one of the most admired Persian poets and now has a remarkably wide following in the US, was born on September 30, 1207, in Balkh, a small town west of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. He was descended from several generations of Muslim scholars and preachers adhering to a relatively liberal interpretation of their doctrine. His father, Bahâ al-Din, a Sufi known in his lifetime as 'The King of the Clerics,' was one of the principal influences on Rumi's development and subsequent teachings.
Review, 4461 words
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