Iranian · 1207–1273
Rumi became the best-selling poet in America seven centuries after his death, his ecstatic verses of divine love speaking across cultures and centuries. Born in present-day Afghanistan, he settled in Konya (now Turkey) where he lived as a respected religious scholar until meeting the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, whose spiritual intensity transformed him. After Shams's disappearance, Rumi poured his grief and longing into poetry, composing over 40,000 verses of lyric poetry and the Masnavi, a six-book spiritual epic. The Mevlevi Order, or Whirling Dervishes, emerged from his followers. His poetry explores the soul's longing for union with the divine through imagery of wine, music, and beloved.