University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Mowlana Rumi was one of the great spiritual masters and political geniuses of mankind. Rumi, the thirteen-century Persian lawyer, Devine and Sufi, was widely considered literature's greatest mystical poet. He was not only a great poet and dervish, but also an expert of astronomy, whose knowledge of stars and the universe is quite compatible with today's established facts on cosmos. In his lifetime he enjoyed unusually good relations with diverse groups. He was familiar with all religious groups, including Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish, and often friendly with their practitioners. After the death of his first wife who was a Muslim, Rumi chose his second wife many believed to be Christian in origin.

In short, Rumi's work responds to an increasing need many of us have for an instinctive and mystical response to the ordinary events of life and for a more joyful daily existence.