Who is Rumi?

The 13th century poet and mystical teacher we know as Rumi started life as a refugee. Born in the northern region of what is today Afghanistan, on the eastern edge of the Islamic world — surrounded by many religions, cultures, and languages — his young life was soon to be disrupted by the Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan.

Over the centuries, Balkh, the city of his birth, had been a center of Zoroastrianism as well as Greek and Buddhist culture before the introduction of Islam. Pilgrims came from as far afield as India, China, and Korea to study and view the giant statues of the Buddha carved into the rock in a valley at nearby Bamyan. For centuries after, Balkh remained what Venetian explorer Marco Polo called “a noble city and a great seat of learning.” Besides the Buddhist tradition, there were Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian influences throughout the region. Rumi’s father was a religious teacher known as the “Sultan of the Scholars.” Around the year 1215, in the face of Genghis Khan’s brutal invasion, the family was forced to abandon everything and flee westward to safety.

The boy and his family traveled through Baghdad, Mecca and Damascus, ultimately settling far to the west in Konya in today’s Turkey. It had until recently been the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire. Called “Rum” in Arabic (“Rome”), this eastern branch of the Roman Empire would give the poet his world-renowned nickname of Rumi.

All these years later, Rumi remains an inspiration for great philosophers, everyday lovers of poetry, proponents of the New Age movement and psychotherapists such as Milton Erickson. Some other teachers and masters who have been inspired by and who have used Rumi in their practice include Deepak Chopra, Coleman Barks and Caroline Myss.