The Vision of Rumi

Revealing the Masnavi, Persia's Great Masterpiece

Alan Williams author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Publishing:25th Jun '26

£25.00

This title is due to be published on 25th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Vision of Rumi cover

"The Masnavi" is the six-volume masterpiece created by one of the world's greatest poetic geniuses, Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273). It is perhaps the single most influential piece of mystical writing ever conceived. Though the Persian poet Rumi is now hugely popular in the West, his most famous oeuvre still remains enigmatic. Alan Williams here offers a novel approach to reading and understanding this great jewel of world literature. Recognizing that all medieval and modern attempts to 'explain' the "Masnavi" have been based on an examination of its teachings, Williams shows that those who have tried to find the key to its message in its separate themes have had little success. He argues that the work can only be fully comprehended if the 'meaning' of the text is understood to lie in the poetry itself, in the language. The closely woven tapestry cannot be unwoven into prosaic explanation without losing the whole. The visionary poetic metaphors and devices are not the container for the teachings: they are the teachings. This revelatory unlocking enables Rumi's voice and purpose to become fully transparent.

ISBN: 9781780766256

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

224 pages