The essential Rumi (Mystical classics of the world)

Jelaluddin Rumi was born in 1207 and until the age of thirty-seven was a brilliant scholar and popular teacher. But his life changed forever when he met the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, of whom Rumi said, "What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being." From this mysterious and esoteric friendship came new heights of spiritual enlightenment. When Shams disappeared, Rumi began his transformation from scholar to artist, and his poetry began to take wing. To absorb the words of Jelaluddin Rumi is to feel oneself transported to the magical, mystical place of a whirling, ecstatic poet.