Sufi parables

Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi (1207–1273) was an Iranian poet, mystic, and faqih who had a profound influence on the entire culture of the peoples of the Near and Middle East.
The pinnacle of Rumi's work was his poem "Masnavi" - an... unsurpassed example of the didactic genre of Persian poetry. Conceived as a poetic (for ease of assimilation) guide for the Sufi community, the work has many times outgrown this plan thanks to the intellectual and poetic talent of its creator. For many centuries, “Masnavi” became a real encyclopedia of Muslim mysticism: it was read, memorized, and studied in a number of Islamic regions. The work gained even greater fame due to its artistic qualities and truly universal universalism: Rumi put complex philosophical concepts in the form of short parables, stories, everyday tales, while managing to achieve amazing clarity and grace of language.
In this edition, selected parables from the great poem are published in a modern poetic translation, accompanied by commentaries that reveal the mysterious meanings of mystical monism.