|
|
Rumi's
major works are the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz-i (The
Works of Shams of Tabriz - named in honor of Rumi's
great friend and inspiration, the dervish Shams),
comprising some 40,000 verses, and the Mathnawi of
about 25,000 verses. Additionally, three
collections of his talks and letters have been
preserved.
The
Diwan is made up of some 3,230 ghazals totaling
35,000 verses; 44 tarjiat, poems composed of two or
more ghazals, a total of 1,700 verses; and 2,000
rubaiyat, or "quatrains". Its creation spanned a
period of almost thirty years, from sometime after
the arrival of Shams in Konya (Turkey), until
Rumi's death. This is an important point, for it is
often forgotten that much of the Diwan was composed
concurrently with the Mathnawi, during the last
twelve or fourteen years of Rumi's life.
The
Mathnawi comprises six books of poetry in a
didactic style (designed or intended to teach;
intended to convey instruction and information as
well as for pleasure and entertainment). Whereas
the Diwan contains Rumi's individual ghazals and
other miscellaneous poems arranged according to the
rhyme scheme, the Mathnawi represents a single work
which was composed in its present order.
next
|
|
