International reading guide

Rumi’s works

Poetry, discourses, letters and sermons.

A visual reading

One work, many manuscripts

One work, many manuscripts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Public Domain / CC0 · Source · License
Images were resized and converted to WebP; not cropped.

This illustrated Masnavi belongs to The Met and is dated 1488–1489. The date of a manuscript is not the date when Rumi composed the work. Compare the text, decoration and catalog record as separate sources of information.

This page is the international reading edition. You can also read the detailed Turkish original. Turkish original

SourcesThe Met — Masnavi ↗TDV — Mesnevî ↗

This page is the international reading edition. You can also read the detailed Turkish original. Turkish original

Poetry

The Masnavi is a Persian work in six books, exploring Sufi questions through stories and commentary. The Divan-e Kabir is a large collection of lyric poetry, also known by a title associated with Shams of Tabriz. The quatrains use a four-line form for concise expression.

Prose

Fihi ma fih was compiled from discourses. The Maktubat contains letters, while the Majalis-e Saba contains seven sermons. When citing a passage, give the work and book, poem or section number, together with the translator and edition used.

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Sources

International reading guide

Sources and further reading

Sources