The Masnavi (Mesnevi)

If any new scholarly insights regarding the mysticism of Jalal al-Din Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273), the preeminent Persian poet and founder of the Mevlevi Order of Sufis. are to be offered, they could likely only arise from the perspective of a general knowledge of the philosophy and religious history of the Orient. This is a field that has been diligently cultivated since the first appearance of Georg Rosen’s translation of the Masnavi original: "Mesnevi-Übersetzung"; the Masnavi-i Ma'navi is Rumi's most famous work, a massive collection of ethical and spiritual anecdotes., and it has borne beautiful fruit. In the realm of philosophy, Dieterici Friedrich Dieterici (1821–1903), a German scholar who specialized in the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Islamic world. has especially deepened our understanding of the Eastern world of thought. But how few philosophers are granted the opportunity to read and utilize the difficult Oriental texts! — And it is similar in the related field of the history of religions. Among the representatives of this new science, the theological naturally predominates over the Orientalist. Even though, most gratifyingly, one of the greatest modern authorities in this field is able to reproduce works drawn from the original Persian text in an artistic form, referring to footnote 3 many great treasures still remain buried due to linguistic and technical difficulties. Meanwhile, general interest has turned to the study of mysticism to such a high degree that it can no longer dispense with a closer knowledge of the poetry and philosophy of Jalal al-Din.

When I now undertake to add here a short sketch of the philosophical ideas of the Mawlana original: "Mewlānā"; an Arabic title meaning "Our Master," used as a respectful name for Rumi., I must immediately remark that this does not claim to give an exhaustive picture of his system. For that, I primarily lack the necessary leisure. Rather, it is a distillation of what I gathered in earlier years of travel in the Orient through immersion in the works of Jalal al-Din and other similar poets, and no less through many years of association with many who [follow] the great mystic—

3. Edv. Lehmann (Professor of the History of Religions at Berlin University), Textbook on the History of Religions, Leipzig 1912. original title: "Textbuch zur Religionsgeschichte". Edvard Lehmann (1862–1930) was a Danish scholar central to the establishment of the history of religions as a discipline.