Love - Jalal al-Din Rumi

The love poems by the great thirteenth-century Persian poet,
Jelaluddin Rumi, founder of the Whirling Dervishes of Sufism, are both
mystical and a mystery. Are they addressed to his mentor, the wandering
Shams of Tabriz (who converted him to a life of joy when he was
thirty-eight), or to God, or to a lover?Reflecting the complexities and paradoxes of love and devotion -
separation, cruelty, and break-up - they are poems of great power and
emotional intensity, of exuberant passion and overflowing imagination.Though seemingly addressed to a lover, in their imagery they
encompass the universe and are metaphors of love in its physical form,
reinforced by amazing rhythms, which echo the dance of the whirling
dervishes.Lassa?d Metoui, the renowned Arabic calligrapher, has beautifully
captured the atmosphere and movement of the poems in this collection.

Rumi, the great poet of Sufism, is the world's bestselling poet. Born in
Persia in 1211 he composed thousands of poems that have continued to be
chanted on pilgrimages and during religious ceremonies since.
Celebrated as a mystic he founded the order of Whirling Dervishes of
Sufism, which spread throughout the Islamic world after his death.