Rumi's Secret

by Brad Gooch

  126 “spoiling.” Maqâlât, 625–66.

  126 “effeminate.” Dowlatshâh-e Samarqandi, Taz Kerrat al-sho’arâ, ed. Mohammad Abbâsi (Tehran: Bârâni, 1337/1958), 216.

  127 “The Sufi’s book.” Masnavi, II, 159.

  127 “There were people.” Maqâlât, 641.

  127 “There were dervishes.” Ibid., 687.

  127 “With such a love.” Ibid., 677.

  128 “I used to have.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 81, 679.

  128 “They chose everybody.” Maqâlât, 278–79.

  128 “You used to come.” Ibid., 729.

  129 “If Abu Hanifa.” Ibid., 304.

  129 “I’m looking.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 4, 616.

  130 “When you see.” Masnavi, III, 3753.

  130 “Sheikh Mohammad.” Maqâlât, 120. For a discussion of the likely identification of “Sheikh Mohammad” with Ibn Arabi, see Omid Safi, “Did the Two Oceans Meet?” Journal of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, vol. 26 (1999): 55–88.

  130 “He was a mountain.” Maqâlât, 239.

  130 “You crack.” Ibid., 239.

  131 “He was compassionate.” Ibid., 299.

  131 “Our caravan leader.” Ghazal #463.

  131 “pearl.” Maqâlât, 304.

  131 “intellect.” Ibid., 82.

  131 “For me, death.” Ibid., 286.

  132 “I would say.” Ibid., 635–36.

  132 “This man.” Ibid., 641.

  132 “Though Shehab.” Ibid., 225–26.

  132 “You are asking.” Ibid., 295.

  133 “At first.” Ibid., 249.

  133 “Whenever you see someone.” Ibid., 713–14.

  133 “in Rum.” Ibid., 760.

  135 “Kerra Khatun.” Ibid., 315.

  135 “learning and knowledge.” Cited in Lewis, Rumi, 135.

  135 “alchemy, astronomy.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 18, 625.

  135 “beloved.” Cited in Zarrinkub, Step by Step, 131.

  137 “Be among.” Maqâlât, 721.

  137 “When I’m by myself.” Ibid., 761.

  137 “Sometimes Love.” Ghazal #2231.

  138 “The world.” Masnavi, V, 1039.

  138 “Whenever I write.” Ghazal #1593.

  138 “a sun has come up.” Maqâlât, 223.

  138 “be like the poor.” Ibid., 778.

  138 “I stop.” Maqâlât, 761.

  139 “The world.” Ghazal #1095.

  140 “We’ve met.” Maqâlât, 93–94.

  140 “I’m so happy.” Ibid., 189.

  140 “The first.” Ibid., 779.

  140 “God has not yet.” Ibid., 777.

  140 “I wanted.” Ibid., 219.

  140 “Now the water.” Ibid., 142.

  140 “Now rub.” Ibid., 300.

  141 “In the lane.” Ibid., 646.

  141 “The purpose.” Ibid., 628.

  141 “In the presence.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 20, 109.

  141 “I do not revere.” Maqâlât, 691.

  142 “Which place.” Aflaki, III, sec. 38, 121–22.

  142 “Is wine.” Ibid., IV, sec. 41, 639.

  143 “What have you.” Ibid., IV, sec. 89, 683.

  143 “One of them claims.” Maqâlât, 306.

  144 “The lovely.” Ibid., 736.

  144 “jackasses” Ibid., 641.

  144 “Who is this.” Sultan Valad, Valadname, 44.

  144 “Mowlana has.” Maqâlât, 74.

  144 “I’m all one color.” Ibid., 106.

  144 “I am only troubled.” Ibid., 319.

  144 “arrogant.” Ibid., 774.

  145 “You only.” Aflaki, III, sec. 237, 314.

  145 “During Majnun’s time.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 15, 87.

  145 “I’m not.” Maqâlât, 774.

  145 “On the Day of Resurrection.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 80, 679.

  146 “You were silent.” Robai #1143.

  CHAPTER 8: SEPARATION

  147 “All wondered.” Valadname, 43.

  147 “His bird.” Ibid., 47.

  148 “Because.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 26, 630.

  148 “Please be aware.” Maqâlât, 783.

  148 “When you’re not here.” Ghazal #1760.

  148 sonnet. The great historian of Iranian literature Jan Rypka writes of the “striking resemblance to the sonnet” of the ghazal, “the truest and most pleasing expression of lyricism, particularly of the erotic and mystical but also of the meditative and even the panegyric.” Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature (Dordrecht-Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1968), 94–95.

  149 “Oh you, light.” Ghazal #1364.

  150 “The sun of Truth.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 24, 629.

  150 “From the moment.” Ghazal #1760.

  151 “It’s a wonderful.” Maqâlât, 340.

  152 “If they had said.” Ibid., 756.

  152 “I remember.” Ibid., 340.

  152 “Such praying.” Ibid., 766.

  152 “When I was in Aleppo.” Ibid., 118.

  153 “the work.” Ibid., 766.

  153 “When I found.” Valadname, 49.

  153 “Kissing Valad.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 105, 695.

  153 “All the companions.” Ibid., 696.

  153 “When you came.” Maqâlât, 773.

  154 “Comrades, go.” Ghazal #163.

  154 “It is not permitted.” Aflaki, IV, sec., 105, 696.

  155 “This time.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 19, 106.

  155 “These people.” Ibid., 105.

  156 “and no one knew.” Quoted in Annemarie Schimmel, Rumi’s World: The Life and Work of the Great Sufi Poet (Boston and London: Shambhala Press, 2001; originally published as I Am Wind, You Are Fire), 18.

  156 “With his beautiful.” Robai #352.

  156 “My sun and moon.” Ghazal #633.

  157 “The heart.” Maqâlât, 610.

  157 “Tolerate.” Ibid., 260.

  158 “In the book.” Ghazal #327.

  158 “They felt jealous.” Maqâlât, 72.

  158 “Mowlana became.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 132.

  158 “I wish.” Maqâlât, 353.

  159 “If truly.” Ibid., 757.

  159 “pure and beautiful.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 43, 641.

  160 “Because it was winter.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 133.

  160 “Shamsoddin said.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 39, 637.

  160 “I asked God.” Maqâlât, 347.

  162 “This is his study time.” Maqâlât, 623.

  162 “The second son.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 133.

  163 “Did you see.” Maqâlât, 198.

  163 “He repeated.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 133.

  163 “heart was after me.” Maqâlât, 803.

  163 “Whomever I love.” Ibid., 219.

  164 “Someone said.” Ibid., 74.

  164 “I become bored.” Ibid., 740.

  164 “I cannot blame.” Ibid., 803.

  165 “One day.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 43, 641.

  165 “When speaking.” Ghazal #2179.

  167 “I was restless.” Maqâlât, 351.

  168 “The dance.” Ibid., 623.

  168 “If you can.” Ibid., 163–64.

  169 “Was Mowlana.” Ibid., 773.

  169 “My entire life.” Quoted in a slightly different translation in William C. Chittick, “Translator’s Introduction,” Me & Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams-i Tabrizi (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2004), xiv.

  169 “My entire life.” Ghazal #1768.

  170 “He said.” Valadname, 54.

  170 “I cannot.” Maqâlât, 334.

  171 “As neither Mowlana.” Ibid., 742–43.

  171 “I became so upset.” Ibid., 696.

  171 “To be able.” Ibid., 187.

  172 “Bahaoddin.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 134.

  172 “When Shamsoddin.” Valadname, 54.

  172 “Mowlana roared.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 134.

  CHAPTER 9: “I BURNED, I BURNED, I BURNED”

  1
73 “I burned.” Ghazal #1768.

  173 “the sheikh.” The Travels of Ibn Battutah, ed., Tim Mackintosh-Smith (London: Picador, 2003), 106.

  173 “Subsequently.” Ibid.,107.

  173 “his merciful presence.” Resâle Sepahsalar, 134.

  174 “a day or two.” Valadname, 54.

  175 “Perform.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 65.

  175 “sang.” Ghazal #1641.

  175 tambourine. Ghazal #2083.

  175 “Sometimes.” Ghazal #302.

  175 “Day and night.” Valadname, 58.

  176 “Mowlana.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 92, 686.

  176 “The night wears black.” Ghazal #2130.

  176 “bloody.” Ghazal #2807.

  176 “covered in blood.” Ghazal #144.

  176 “This earth is not.” Ghazal #336.

  177 “When the water.” Ghazal #2514.

  177 “They want to kill.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 91, 684.

  178 “The relationship.” Schimmel, Rumi’s World, 22.

  178 “a more reciprocal.” Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 98.

  179 “One day.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 51, 647.

  179 “During.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 134.

  179 “putting his head.” Valadname, 60.

  180 “For the third time.” Ghazal #1493.

  181 The Trickery of Satan. The original title is Al-talbis Iblis, written by Ibn al-Jawzi (d. c.e. 1201). For a fuller discussion, see Ali Asani, “Music and Dance in the Work of Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi,” Islamic Culture, 60:2 (April 1986): 41.

  181 stages. I am indebted to the analysis of Rumi’s poetry about Shams in terms of such stages to Annemarie Schimmel, especially her chapter on “Rumi and the Metaphors of Love,” in As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2001, originally published 1982), 86–90.

  182 “Since I am.” Ghazal #1621.

  182 “I gave him.” Ghazal #600.

  182 “Jalaloddin” Ghazal #1196.

  183 “Be silent.” Ghazal #1621.

  183 “One night.” Ghazal #757.

  184 “Not alone.” Ghazal #1081.

  185 “Say the name.” Ghazal #2807.

  185 “I wonder.” Ghazal #677.

  186 “Speak.” Ghazal #2056.

  186 “there was probably.” Lewis, Rumi, 167.

  186 “the light.” Ghazal #1526.

  187 “It’s not enough.” Ghazal #2768.

  187 “You speak for God.” Ghazal #1310.

  188 “When I went.” Ghazal #2968.

  188 “Joseph’s shirt.” Ghazal #997.

  189 “If my eyes.” Ghazal #2893.

  190 “pious man.” Valadname, 57.

  190 “Each dawn.” Ghazal #2152.

  191 “loved dearly.” Aflaki, V, sec. 13, 714.

  191 “in himself.” Valadname, 61.

  191 “He said.” Ibid., 63.

  192 “son.” Rumi, Maktubat, Letter 1, 59.

  192 “angelic qualities.” Ibid., Letter 23, 91.

  193 “Just as water.” Ghazal #232.

  194 “This unfortunate.” Aflaki, III, sec. 307, 376.

  195 “My kindness.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 15, 89.

  195 “He went.” Valadname, 62.

  196 “In every age.” Masnavi, II, 815–16; 819–20.

  196 “I grew old.” Ghazal #207.

  197 “one day.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 110, 700.

  197 “They feel” Ibid., III, sec. 297, 362.

  197 “Morning rises.” Ghazal #879.

  198 “This was his clothing.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 93, 687.

  CHAPTER 10: “LAST YEAR IN A RED CLOAK . . . THIS YEAR IN BLUE”

  201 “Last year.” Ghazal #650.

  201 “When Salahoddin.” Resâle-ye Sepahsalar, 135.

  202 “I passed on.” Aflaki, V, sec. 3, 705.

  202 “As Mowlana.” Ibid.

  203 “I see so many.” Ibid., V, sec. 15, 715.

  203 “No.” Ibid., V, sec. 11, 712.

  203 “That lion-hunting.” Ghazal #594.

  203 “Last year.” Ghazal #650.

  204 “The grace.” Ghazal #1397.

  202 “At the end.” Ghazal #1210.

  205 “eshq bazi.” Aflaki, V, sec. 7, 711; John O’Kane translates the Persian as “amorous playfulness” in his translation of Aflaki, The Feats of the Knowers of God (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002), 495.

  205 “It happened to me.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 20, 111.

  206 “nayeb.” For a discussion of Salahoddin and the position of nayeb, see Lewis, Rumi, 207.

  206 delivering sermons. In a different account in Aflaki, the finality of Rumi’s giving up sermons is presented as debatable: “He never again undertook to preach. According to others, he did continue to preach, but not consistently.” Aflaki, III, sec. 86, 172.

  206 “He said.” Valadname, 66.

  206 “Dedicate yourselves.” Ibid.

  207 “Words.” Aflaki, V, sec. 18, 718.

  207 “Again envy.” Valadname, 73.

  208 “nothing.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 21, 112.

  209 “Without a mirror.” Robai #1552.

  209 “I’m a mirror.” Ghazal #38.

  209 “Take a polished.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 49, 209.

  210 “Look at the face.” Valadname, 67.

  210 “If you become.” Ibid., 106.

  211 “Day and night.” Ibid., 108.

  211 “They are upset.” Ibid., 78.

  211 “When this news.” Ibid., 77.

  211 “with their faces.” Aflaki, V, sec. 20, 719.

  211 “Fateme is my right.” Ibid.

  212 “because of the extreme.” Ibid., V, sec. 19, 719.

  212 “May the blessings.” Ghazal #236.

  213 “Dance.” Ghazal #31.

  213 “His knowledge.” Badi al-Zaman Foruzanfar, “Some Remarks on Rumi’s Poetry,” Mawlana Rumi Review, vol. 3 (2012): 183–84.

  214 “One day.” Aflaki, III, sec. 458, 483–84.

  215 “If my dear son.” Maktubat, Letter 56, 132–33.

  215 “Because of the white.” Ibid., Letter 6, 69–70.

  216 “They collected.” Aflaki, V, sec. 30, 727.

  216 “my dear child.” Maktubat, Letter 29, 98.

  216 “my eloquent.” Ibid., Letter 45, 117–18.

  217 “May this wedding.” Ghazal #2667.

  CHAPTER 11: THE FALL OF BAGHDAD

  218 Abbasid Caliph. He was a successor in a direct line from the Prophet Mohammad, though not by blood.

  219 pope and emperor. See Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, 180.

  220 “When in the year.” Aflaki, III, sec. 112, 202.

  220 “in a sack.” Ibid., III, sec. 113, 205.

  220 “Oh seekers.” Taqi al-Din ibn Abi al-Yusr, “[Burned to Ashes],” in Baghdad: The City in Verse, trans. and ed. Reuven Snir (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), 155.

  220 “loss for the kingdom.” Al-Majd al-Nashabi, “[Turning a Child’s Hair White],” ibid., 154.

  221 “Now if not eating.” Ibid., III, sec. 112, 203.

  221 “The deputy.” Masnavi, I, 2685.

  222 “The Tatar armies.” Ghazal #1839.

  222 “taxes and camels.” Maktubat, Letter 42, 114.

  222 “During your absence.” Ibid., Letter 61, 139.

  224 “How would.” Aflaki, III, sec. 37, 118.

  225 “I hear.” Ibid., III, sec. 82, 165.

  225 “Day and night.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 2, 24.

  226 “For my part.” Aflaki, III, sec. 217, 299.

  227 “premodern.” Omid Safi, The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam: Negotiating Ideology and Religious Inquiry (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 129.

  228 “It’s fine.” Aflaki, III, sec. 374, 425.

  228 “I want you.” Ibid., III, sec. 384, 432.

  228 “all alone.” Ibid., III, sec. 468, 4
90.

  229 “my brother.” Maktubat, Letter 36, 104.

  229 Ince Minareli. Annemarie Schimmel described the cursive Kufic architectural inscriptions as “the beginning of a new artistic consciousness.” Schimmel, Rumi’s World, 7.

  230 “the people.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 22, 115.

  230 “Your kingdom.” Maktubat, Letter 102, 188.

  231 “I wanted.” Ibid., Letter 28, 97.

  231 “Even though.” Aflaki, IV, sec. 83, 680.

  232 “Come let us go.” Ibid., V, sec. 17, 718.

  232 “For demolition.” Ibid., V, sec. 23, 721.

  232 “He accepted.” Valadname, 113.

  232 “The Sheikh said.” Ibid., 115.

  233 “Gabriel and the wings.” Ghazal #2364.

  234 “Ever since.” Aflaki, III, sec. 147, 233.

  CHAPTER 12: “SING, FLUTE!”

  235 “Sing, flute!” Robai #1271.

  235 “A human being.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 1, 23.

  236 “as thin.” Aflaki, III, sec. 204, 290.

  236 “Look at Mowlana!” Ibid., III, sec. 99, 188.

  236 “Is our religion.” Ibid., III, sec. 459, 484.

  237 “Mowlana.” Ibid., III, sec. 296, 361.

  238 “It is not proper.” Ibid., III, sec. 542, 555.

  238 “Boo!” Ibid., III, sec. 148, 234.

  238 “Maleke.” Ibid., III, sec. 249, 323.

  238 “Why did you hit.” Ibid., III, sec. 344, 406.

  239 “Lord, wait for me.” Ibid., III, sec. 68, 153–54.

  239 “Why are you beating.” Ibid., II, sec. 34, 116.

  239 “happy union.” Ibid., III, sec. 100, 190.

  239 “The stench.” Ibid., III, sec. 166, 258.

  240 “The danger.” Fihe ma fih, Discourse 1, 22.

  240 “As my fame.” Aflaki, III, sec. 138, 226.

  241 “Make yourself thin.” Masnavi, I, 1545–46.

  241 “Words of praise.” Ibid., I, 1855.

  241 “I began to sweat.” Aflaki, III, sec. 325, 394.

  241 “affliction.” Ibid., VII, sec. 14, 800.

  241 “I am not keeping.” Ibid., III, sec. 404, 441.

  242 “I have never.” Ibid., III, sec. 330, 395.

  242 “One morning.” Ghazal #649.

  243 “Collections.” Aflaki, VI, sec. 3, 740.

  243 “Listen to the reed flute.” Masnavi, I, 1–4. An alternative translation of the last line of this section would be: “Longing to be joined together once again.”

  244 “Out of curiosity.” Ibid., I, 6–9.

  245 “When Hosamoddin.” Aflaki, VI, sec. 2, 738.

  245 “You are a ray.” Masnavi, IV, 1.

  246 “It’s dawn.” Ibid., I, 1807–9.

  246 “One day Mowlana.” Aflaki, III, sec. 544, 556.