Who was Rumi? Does his poetry refer to a divine being or a sincere lover? How can one tap into the original Persian text and extract its ideas meaningfully? Is he still as relevant today? And if so, how does one relate to Rumi in today’s world?

The course explores questions such as these and more about Maulana Rumi, a renowned Persian poet and Sufi master born in 1207. He was declared the most popular poet in America in late 1990s, and is widely considered one of the world’s greatest poets and spiritual leaders. Given his enduring message of love, conveyed through poetry, his ideas are ever relevant, more so in a world increasingly facing issues of social chaos and human anxiety. Today, our materialistic world thirsts for the fountain of profound wisdom that stems from the kind of literature that Maulana Rumi has produced and the scholars have derived from his legacy.
The course will focus on arming students with different techniques and perspectives on how to read and understand his poetry, reflect on why Rumi retains the popularity even today, and why the poet is an important figure in the mystic and poet tradition of South Asia.