Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal Al-Din Rumi

Studies in Comparative Religion

by Fatemeh Keshavarz, Fatemeh Keshavarz-Karamustafa

The first ciritcal approach to Rumi's canon of verse

Jalal al-Din Rumi, a towering figure in the Persian speaking world, is currently the most widely published poet in English translation. Yet despite the popularity of his verse, the majority of scholarship on his work focuses not on Rumi's poetry but on his contributions as a mystic. Fatemeh Keshavarz's pioneering study is the first extensive critical examination of this vast, dynamic body of literature. Through close readings of the Divan, his collection of more than 35,000 lyric verses, she explores Rumi's extraordinary popular and critical literary success.

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Fatemeh Keshavarz is an Iranian scholar, poet, and academic specializing in Persian studies and the works of Rumi. Since 2012, she has been the Roshan Chair of Persian Studies and Director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland. Previously, she taught for two decades at Washington University in St. Louis, where she chaired the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures.
Born and raised in Shiraz, Iran, Keshavarz earned her B.A. from Shiraz University before completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies at the University of London. Her scholarship includes works such as Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998), Recite in the Name of the Red Rose (2006), and Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran (2007), which critiques Western portrayals of Iranian society. She has also written poetry in both Persian and English.
A vocal advocate for peace and cultural education, Keshavarz received the Hershel Walker 'Peace and Justice' Award in 2008 and spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on the role of cultural education in world peace. That same year, she was featured in the Peabody Award-winning NPR program Speaking of Faith: The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi.

Reviews

[Andrea Avalon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intensely intellectual study of Rumi that is also moving and deeply spiritual. I <3 Fatemeh Keshavarz. Look up her interview with Krista Tippit on the radio show Speaking of Faith. Her voice is mesmerizing.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two themes particularly and valuably emerged from my engagement with Keshavarz’ Reading Mystical Lyric: 1) Her explication and illustration of Rumi’s assertion of silence. “If the ‘mouth is silent,’ it is in the hope that the ‘divine storyteller’ may take over the responsibility of telling the tale (D, 1086:8)” (p. 65).
2) Similar extensive development of Rumi’s allowance for and even insistence upon the reader’s participation. “Creating a playful poetic ambience is one of Rumi’s major achievements in his lyrics. It is within the boundaries of this playful world that the reader enters a gamelike relationship with the poet. As the walls between fact and fiction or wakefulness and dreaming crumble, we the readers grow more eager to accept the rules of the game in order to penetrate more deeply into this world” (p. 99). To draw us further into this experience, Professor Keshavarz generously provides transliteration of Rumi's original language so that the English-speaking reader can approximate the “sonic” level of the text which Keshavarz richly explicates. The numerous translations from the Divan are wonderfully selected and beautifully worded. This volume, like the others she’s done, offers such a treasure.

[Bahman Solati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding the thoughts of Rumi better, and comprehending mystical lyrics of Persia.