Abstract
Jala¯l al-Di¯n Ru¯mi¯'s Mathnawi¯ has long been considered to be a poem without an organizational plan as if produced extemporaneously, despite the fact that its approximately 26, 000 verses are divided fairly evenly into six books that follow the same general format. Recent studies (Safavi and Weightman, 2009; Karamustafa, 2010; Williams, 2013) have re-examined the question of the structure of the poem. This article contributes to this discourse by focusing on Ru¯mi¯'s own comments about his idiosyncratically frequent departures from his narratives, as well as on a significant passage of the first book of the Mathnawi¯ which both corresponds to Ru¯mi¯'s expressed intentions and raises questions about the theory of Safavi and Weightman. It is argued here that Ru¯mi¯ deliberately prevented the reader from becoming distracted from his immediate message to them, whether through the anticipation of the endings of stories or through any attempt to situate verses within an overall plan. It is proposed that Ru¯mi¯ would not have wished an organizational plan to be prominent, and this, rather than an esoteric explanation, can better explain the lack of any obvious plan for the poem.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 105-131 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Journal of Sufi Studies |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2014 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History
- Religious studies
- Philosophy
Keywords
- Audience
- Chiasmus
- Inspired soul (nafs-i mulhama)
- Mathnawi¯
- Plan
- Polyphony
- Ru¯mi¯
- Sufism
- Voice