This Sunday, I wanted to talk about a historical figure, a poet. A man you might have heard of but probably did not know much about. His name was Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī but he is more commonly known as simply Rumi, which means a man from the city of Rum (or Rome). This could mean a Roman, but in this case, it is a person from Anatolia or what we now call the nation of Turkey (which was “Rome” in the sense of Byzantium).
Rumi was alive during the 13th century, born in Afghanistan. He was a Muslim and more specifically a Sufi. This is a group of Muslim mystics, and they were prominent in this time and in this area. They focus on meditative practices such as the dances of the whirling dervishes you might have seen. They are not simply dancers, but also men who have taken vows of poverty and austerity much like a Catholic monk.