Rumi's Poetry

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2016

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi, the Persian scholar and Sufi mystic of the 13th Century. His great poetic works are the Masnavi or "spiritual couplets" and the Divan, a collection of thousands of lyric poems. He is closely connected with four modern countries: Afghanistan, as he was born in Balkh, from which he gains the name Balkhi; Uzbekistan from his time in Samarkand as a child; Iran as he wrote in Persian; and Turkey for his work in Konya, where he spent most of his working life and where his followers established the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Whirling Dervishes.

With

Alan Williams British Academy Wolfson Research Professor at the University of Manchester

Carole Hillenbrand Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews and Professor Emerita of Edinburgh University

And

Lloyd Ridgeon Reader in Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:08.0	UK slash Radio 4. I hope you enjoy the programme.
0:11.0	Hello, the Sufi writer and teacher Rumi is so important in the Islamic world that four
0:16.1	modern countries claim him for their own.
0:18.3	Afghanistan as he was born in that area in the town of Balq in 1207, Uzbekistan as he lived in Samakand as a child,
0:26.4	Turkey as he lived, worked and died in the Anatolian city of Konia, Iran as he wrote in Persian. Rumi is treasured throughout Islam and beyond for his poetry,
0:36.0	his Masnaby and Devan.
0:39.0	His output was extraordinary,
0:41.0	around four times longer than Homer's Odyssey.
0:44.8	The Devon is a massive collection of lyrical poems.
0:47.9	The Masnaby of spiritual verses of enormous complexity described controversially in the 14th century as the Persian
0:55.5	Quran. His followers founded the Mevlevi Order of Sufis known outside Turkey for their whirling
1:02.0	dervishes.
1:03.2	With me to discuss the poems of Rumi are Alan Williams, British Academy Wolfson Research Professor
1:08.5	at the University of Manchester, Carl Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews and Professor
1:14.8	a Meritor of Edinburgh University, and Lloyd Rijon, Reader in Islamic Studies at the University
1:20.0	of Glasgow.
1:21.0	Carol Hillenbrand, why did room and his family move around so much in his early life?
1:28.0	Rumi and his family lived originally in what is now Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and his father was a reputed
1:41.0	teacher and scholar and he had a group of disciples around him and at one point in around
1:48.8	12 12 they were living in Samarkand, and Rumi's father had a dispute with the ruler and left the area.
1:59.6	Now whether or not that was also because of the rumbling rumors about terrible activities by the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.