Dancing before God’s Beauty
About this book
This book presents fresh insights into the life, teachings, and enduring legacy of the Persian mystic poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. Across thirteen chapters, scholars introduce innovative perspectives on under-explored and emerging themes, from the hagiography written by Rūmī’s son, Sulṭān Valad, and his journey towards accepting spiritual leadership, to Rūmī’s passionate relationship with his beloved friend, Shams-i Tabrīzī. The volume also provides new approaches to reading Rūmī’s monumental didactic narrative, the Mathnavī. Topics range from shāhid-bāzī – worshipping a beautiful face to commune with the divine – to supplication (munājāt), immolation, sensory perception, and the transformative role of music in reaching ecstatic states. Chapters deal with Rūmī’s reception history, examining the works of figures such as Anqaravī (d. 1041/1631) and Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı (1900-1982), as well as the Dutch-Iranian novelist Kader Abdolah. The book further explores Rūmī’s visual reception history and his impact on contemporary artists. Finally, it examines Rūmī’s popularity in the United States, analysing how his poetry continues to offer people from diverse backgrounds a Lacanian "imaginary": an internalized representation of the spiritual.
Author / Editor information
Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
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Frontmatter
I -
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Table of Contents
V -
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Acknowledgements
1 -
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Notes on Transliteration
3 -
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Rūmī Revisited: New Insights into His Life, Teaching and Legacy
5 -
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Reassessing Rūmī’s Relationship with Shams-i Tabrīzī
19 -
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The Oldest Account of Rūmī’s Life: The Verse Hagiography of Rūmī’s Son, Sulṭān Valad
35 -
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Intensification and the ‘Circle of Existence’ in Rūmī’s Mathnavī
83 -
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Rūmī’s Reflections on Handsome Young Boys: Shāhid-Bāzī and the Case of Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī
107 -
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Windows into Ottoman Sufism: Reading Rūmī’s Poetry Through the Prism of Mevlevī Commentator Ismāʿīl Anḳaravī (d. 1041/1631)
123 -
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Talking to God Through Munājāt (‘Private Invocation’)
141 -
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The Pleasures of Being Burnt: The Image of Fire in Rūmī’s Story of Ukhdūd
161 -
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Problematising Truth-Writing: The Parable of the Elephant in the Dark
181 -
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Rūmī and Poetry, Music, and Dance
197 - Reception History
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Writing the History of Islam In-Between: Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı (1900 – 1982) and His ‘Thorny Claims’ on Mevlânâ, ‘Women in Islam’ and Alevi Mevlevis
211 -
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Discursive Role of References to Sufi Poets in the Work of Kader Abdolah
233 -
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Rūmī’s Mystical (Re‐)Orientation of Contemporary Art Practices
249 -
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Chalice of Love: How Rūmī’s Language of Love Affects His Readers Today
269 -
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Contributors
285 -
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Bibliography
289 -
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Index
303
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