Reading Rumi

I first read Rumi in Stephen Mitchell's anthology of world poetry titled The Enlightened Heart. I subsequently read some of his poetry in editions published by various presses. Rumi was a 13th century poet born in Afghanistan who is representative of the current in Islam known as Sufism, which is a more mystical and less dogmatic form of Islam. Rumi is known for his sensual and playful poems. If nothing else, he is worth reading to see the variety of currents within a religion like Islam that is often relegated to a monolithic form associated with fundamentalism and violence.
Czar