Best known for the classic Persian poem “Masnavi,” Rumi grew up the son of a preacher in Afghanistan and later moved to Samarkand before settling in Iran.
Best known for the classic Persian poem “Masnavi,” Rumi grew up the son of a preacher in Afghanistan and later moved to Samarkand before settling in Iran. Rumi cited Persian poets Attar and Sanai, as well as his own father, as his greatest influences. People still pay pilgrimage to the spot where Rumi was buried in Konya, Turkey, after a group of Jews and Christians carried his body through the city. You can read Rumi’s work in the book The Essential Rumi, available from publisher HarperCollins.