Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Persian: جلالالدین محمّد رومی), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih (jurist), Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian (mutakallim),[9] and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.[10][11]
Rumi's works were written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish,[12] Arabic[13] and Greek[14][15][16] in his verse. His Masnavi (Mathnawi), composed in Konya, is considered one of the greatest poems of the Persian language.[17][18] Rumi's influence has transcended national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Afghans, Tajiks, Turks, Kurds, Greeks, Central Asian Muslims, as well as Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries.[19][20] His poetry influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Pashto, Kurdish, Urdu, and Bengali languages.[19][21][22]
Rumi's works are widely read today in their original language across Greater Iran and the Persian-speaking world.[23][24] His poems have subsequently been translated into many of the world's languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the "most popular poet",[25] is very popular in Turkey, Azerbaijan and South Asia,[26] and has become the "best selling poet" in the United States.[27][28]
