Problematising Truth-Writing: The Parable of the Elephant in the Dark

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Table of Contents V
3. Acknowledgements 1
4. Notes on Transliteration 3
5. Rūmī Revisited: New Insights into His Life, Teaching and Legacy 5
6. Reassessing Rūmī’s Relationship with Shams-i Tabrīzī 19
7. The Oldest Account of Rūmī’s Life: The Verse Hagiography of Rūmī’s Son, Sulṭān Valad 35
8. Intensification and the ‘Circle of Existence’ in Rūmī’s Mathnavī 83
9. Rūmī’s Reflections on Handsome Young Boys: Shāhid-Bāzī and the Case of Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī 107
10. Windows into Ottoman Sufism: Reading Rūmī’s Poetry Through the Prism of Mevlevī Commentator Ismāʿīl Anḳaravī (d. 1041/1631) 123
11. Talking to God Through Munājāt (‘Private Invocation’) 141
12. The Pleasures of Being Burnt: The Image of Fire in Rūmī’s Story of Ukhdūd 161
13. Problematising Truth-Writing: The Parable of the Elephant in the Dark 181
14. Rūmī and Poetry, Music, and Dance 197
15. Reception History
16. Writing the History of Islam In-Between: Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı (1900 – 1982) and His ‘Thorny Claims’ on Mevlânâ, ‘Women in Islam’ and Alevi Mevlevis 211
17. Discursive Role of References to Sufi Poets in the Work of Kader Abdolah 233
18. Rūmī’s Mystical (Re‐)Orientation of Contemporary Art Practices 249
19. Chalice of Love: How Rūmī’s Language of Love Affects His Readers Today 269
20. Contributors 285
21. Bibliography 289
22. Index 303