Rumi's World: The Life and Works of the Great Sufi Poet

This is an introduction to the life and letters of Rumi (1207-1273), the great poet of Islamic mysticism and probably the most prolific mystic of all times. His students later developed into the Order of Whirling Dervishes and deeply influenced art and music in the Ottoman Empire. The book is written for the general audience by the late Prof Annemarie Schimmel (Harvard), who was thoroughly acquainted with Rumi's more than 4000 poems and his equally thick collection of rhymed stories (the Mathnavi). Scholars may want to refer to a more scholarly work, but the book is an excellent introduction for whoever wants to obtain basic information about the great master.