Day of remembrance for Jalal al-Din Rumi

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, (actually Ǧalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī; * September 30, 1207 in Balkh in what was then Persia and is now Afghanistan; † December 17, 1273 in Konya, today in Turkey) was one of the most famous Persian and Islamic mystics and is considered the founder of the Mevlevi-Tariqa (Mevlevi-Dervish Order). He is called Moulana (Persian/Arabic "our lord/master" from Arabic maulan, "lord") or (in Turkish pronunciation) Mevlana by his dervishes and later followers. In Rumi's time, Anatolia was ruled by the Rum Seljuks, hence the epithet Rumi (= Eastern Romans, Byzantines).

For Maulana, as for most Sufis, coming closer to God through love is the path to true fulfillment in life. The reason for his fame is that he had the ability to express this teaching in a poetry of unsurpassable beauty. He described with the same eloquence the joy of coming closer to God as the sorrow of having to be separated from God. Like other mystic poets, he described God as the Beloved and the human soul in search of God as the Lover.

UNESCO has declared 2007 as the year of "Rumi-Balhki". On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of his birth, the world organization had a "Rumi-Balhki" medal minted.