Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā and Mevlevî/Mawlawī, but more popularly known simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. Rumi's influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Kurds, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central Asian Muslims, as well as Muslims of the Indian subcontinent have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet" and the "best selling poet" in the United States.
The Masnavi, or Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi, also written Mathnawi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi. The Masnavi is one of the most influential works of Sufism, ascribed to be like a "Quran in Persian". It has been viewed by many commentators as the greatest mystical poem in world literature. The Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God.
A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity.
Arthur John Arberry FBA was a British scholar of Arabic literature, Persian studies, and Islamic studies. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. His English translation of the Qur'an, The Koran Interpreted, is popular amongst academics worldwide.
Divan-i Kebir, also known as Divan i Shams, is a collection of poems written by the Persian poet and Sufi mystic Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, also known as Rumi. A compilation of lyric poems written in the Persian language, it contains more than 40,000 verses and over 3,000 ghazals. While following the long tradition of Sufi poetry as well as the traditional metrical conventions of ghazals, the poems in the Divan showcase Rumi’s unique, trance-like poetic style. Written in the aftermath of the disappearance of Rumi’s beloved spiritual teacher, Shams-i Tabrizi, the Divan is dedicated to Shams and contains many verses praising him and lamenting his disappearance. Although not a didactic work, the Divan still explores deep philosophical themes, particularly those of love and longing.
Shams-i Tabrīzī or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was a Persian Shafi'ite poet, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi's poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī . Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Badiozzaman Forouzanfar or Badi'ozzamān Forūzānfar was a scholar of Persian literature, Iranian linguistics and culture, and an expert on Rumi and his works. He was a distinguished professor of literature at Tehran University.
Iranian studies, also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It is a part of the wider field of Oriental studies.
Abbas Zaryab or 'Abbās Zaryāb was a historian, translator, literature Professor and Iranologist. He was the author of several books, including a life of Muhammad, and articles in The Persian Encyclopedia, Western peer reviewed Journals as well as Iranica.
The Mevlâna Museum, in Konya, Turkey, started life as the dervish lodge (Tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes. It houses the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic.
Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad, more popularly known as Sultan Walad was the eldest son of Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Persian poet, Sufi, Hanafi Maturidi Islamic scholar and one of the founders of the Mawlawiya order.
Ghadam-Ali Sarami is an Iranian author and poet. He was born in Ramhormoz, a small town in Khuzestan Province, southwest of Iran. In 1986, he received a Ph.D. in Persian language and literature from University of Tehran, Iran. He is an associate professor of Persian language and literature at University of Zanjan and an expert in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Tarikh-i Bayhaqi, and Hafez, Sa'di, Rumi, and other masters of Persian literature and poetry.
Jawid Mojaddedi is an Afghan researcher and professor.
Hossein Ziai was a professor of Islamic Philosophy and Iranian Studies at UCLA where he held the inaugural Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies until his passing. He received his B.S. in Intensive Physics and Mathematics from Yale University in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard University in 1976. Prior to UCLA, Ziai taught at Tehran University, Sharif University, Harvard University, Brown University, and Oberlin College. As Director of Iranian Studies at UCLA, where he taught since 1988, Ziai established an undergraduate major in Iranian in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures—the first such degree in North America—and developed the strongest and most rigorous Iranian Studies program in the U.S.
Ahmed Sudi, also known as Sudi-yi Bosnawi, was a 16th-century Bosnian commentator under the Ottoman Empire. He was the author of several Ottoman Turkish commentaries on Persian classics such as the Masnavi of Rumi, the Gulistan and Bostan of Saadi Shirazi, and The Divān of Hafez. According to Professor of Persian and Islamic studies Hamid Algar, Sudi is "perhaps the most prominent of all Ottoman Persianists".
Ahli Shirazi, full name Muhammad ibn Yusuf Ahli Shirazi, was a Persian poet who lived in Shiraz, Iran from 858 to 942H. He is buried in Hafezieh.
Heshmat Moayyad was a Persian writer, translator and the founder of University of Chicago's Persian program.
Hashem Rajabzadeh is a Retired Professor of Osaka University, researcher, translator, and Japanese language expert. He is an Iranian and he was born in 1941 in Tehran. He received a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Tehran and in 1973, he received a doctorate in human rights from the same university. His doctoral dissertation is titled Ritual of Government in the Ministry of Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamedani. Hashem Rajabzadeh was a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran in 1970, and from 1981 to 2011. He was a professor of Persian language and literature in the Department of Foreign Studies at Osaka University. On 23 May 2009 during a ceremony he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, awarded by the Emperor of Japan for his efforts to introduce Iranian culture and civilization to Japan and to introduce Japanese culture and literature to Iranians, for 27 years.
Ali Gheissari is an Iranian historian and sociologist. He teaches history at the University of San Diego and has research interest in the intellectual history of modern Iran and in modern philosophy and social theory. He has been visiting professor of religious studies at Brown University, Iranian Studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and History of Modern Iran at the University of California, Irvine. He is known for his works on the intellectual history and politics of modern Iran. He is on the Editorial Board of Iran Studies book series published by Brill, and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Iranian Studies.
