The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

Encyclopaedia Iranica. My colleagues at the Center for Iranian
Studies of Columbia University helped make that experience
rewarding. After I discovered Rumi when I was a teenager, it was my
mother who 
first nurtured my enthusiasm and interest in his poetry
and the Su
fi tradition which he represents. I would also like to thank
my brother Anis, who has been a major source of inspiration over the
past year, and Negin for her loving support and companionship.

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C O N T E N T S
Introduction
xi
Note on the Translation
xxvii
Select Bibliography
xxix
A Chronology of Rumi
xxxi
T H E M A S NAV I
book one
Prose Introduction
3
The Song of the Reed
4
The Healing of the Sick Slave-Girl
6
The Bald Parrot and the Monk
19
The Jewish Vizier who Deceived the Christians into
Following him and Destroyed them
23
The Description of Mohammad in the Gospels
47
The Jewish King who Tried to Destroy Christians with
his
fire
48
The Man who Mentioned Mohammad’s Name
with a Smirk
52
How a Hare Killed the Lion that had been Tormenting
all the other Animals
57
The Man who saw the Angel of Death
61
The Interpretation of the Fly in a Drop of
Donkey’s Urine
69
Solomon and the Hoopoe
76
Adam’s Fall
78
The Greater Jihad
86
Omar and the Emissary from Byzantium
88
Adam’s Superiority to Satan
93

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‘He is with You Wherever You may be’
95
‘Let Whoever Wants to Sit with God Sit with the
Su
fis’
96
The Escape of the Merchant’s Parrot
97
‘If Mystics Drink Poison it will Become an Antidote’
100
Moses and the Magicians
101
God’s Jealousy
110
The Harm in Being Venerated by People
115
‘What God Wills Happens’
117
The Old Harpist
119
‘The Special Breaths Sent by God’
121
Aisha and the Unseen Rain
124
‘Other Skies beyond These’
126
‘Take Advantage of the Coolness of the Spring’
127
The Moaning Pillar
131
The Gravel that A
ffirmed Mohammad’s
Prophethood
133
The Prayer of the Angels in Favour of Big Spenders
137
The Caliph Who Was More Generous than Hatem Ta

i
139
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
139
False Su
fi Masters
140
Viewing from Limited Perspectives
146
‘Women Prevail over Intelligent Men, while
Ignorant Men Prevail over them’
150
Pharaoh’s Fate
151
‘He Has Lost this World and the Hereafter’
153
Saleh and his She-Camel
155
‘He lets the Seas meet Each Other with a Gap
which They Don’t Encroach upon’
158
The Station of ‘That God may forgive you your
past and future sins’
160
Contents
viii

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The Mutual Need of Beggars and Donors
169
False Dervishes
169
Lovers of the Super
ficial
172
‘If You Fornicate, Do it with a Free Woman; If
You Steal, Steal a Pearl!’
173
The Boatman and the Grammarian
174
The Su
fi Guide
180
The Softie from Qazvin who Wanted a Tattoo
183
The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox
185
The Man who Learned to Knock on his Beloved’s
Door and Say ‘It is You!’
188
Su
fis Serve as Mirrors of the Soul
193
The Gift Brought by Joseph’s Visitor
194
The Prophet’s Scribe who Became an Apostate
198
Bal
am and the Damned
202
The Temptation of Harut and Marut
203
The Deaf Man who Visited his Sick
Neighbour
206
Satan was the First to Rely on Reasoning
208
The Importance of Hiding your Mystical Station
210
The Painting Competition between the Greeks and the
Chinese
212
The Prophet Mohammad and Zayd
214
Loqman’s Test to Discover who had Eaten the Fruit
219
Extinguishing Fire in Medina under Omar
226
Why Ali Dropped his Sword in Battle
227
The Man who was Told that he would One Day
Kill Ali
234
Adam’s Conceit
237