The Mathnawi

Jalal al-Din Rumi's Mathnawi is a primary source of the first order, the thirteenth century Persian Sufi mystic's major poetic work, often called the Quran in Persian within the tradition for its extensive engagement with Islamic scripture through parable and allegory. As Rumi's own composition, it is unmatched authority for his own mystical teaching and poetic method, foundational to the Mevlevi Sufi order he inspired. Any translation into English necessarily involves interpretive choices navigating Persian poetic form, Sufi technical vocabulary and Quranic allusion that specialists debate, and popular English adaptations, some considerably freer than a scholarly translation, have at times circulated with less attention to the text's specifically Islamic theological grounding than the original carries.