Art, literature & culture

Birth of Rumi

30 September 1207

Rumi was born on 30 September 1207 in Vakhsh. A Persian poet and Sufi mystic, Rumi was born in the region of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan, and fled westward with his family before the Mongol invasions, eventually settling in Konya in Anatolia. There he became a respected religious teacher, until a meeting in 1244 with the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz changed his life. After Shams disappeared, Rumi poured his grief and spiritual longing into lyric poetry, collected in the Divan of Shams, and into the Masnavi, a long didactic poem. His followers formed the Mevlevi order, known for its whirling dance. He is one of the most widely read poets in the world today and is buried in Konya.

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