Rumi's Time Has Come (Again)

With U-Md. Conference on Tap, 13th-Century Poet Is Still Touching Hearts

Rumi is hot.

The 13th-century Persian poet inspired a symphony in Los Angeles recently that brought 2,000 people to their feet. About 750,000 books of his poetry have been sold, a quantity that would make many Pulitzer Prize-winning poets drool. The University of Maryland is hosting a three-day conference about him in September. Some would call it the year of Rumi.

But wait -- they have!

The United Nations declared 2007, the 800th anniversary of the poet's birth, the International Year of Rumi.

Mr. Popularity was born Sept. 30, 1207, near Balkh in what is now Afghanistan. He became an Islamic scholar and embraced Islam's mystic tradition of Sufism. Along the way, he wrote thousands of poems. An untitled snippet:

In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul

and you are that.

But we have ways within each other

that will never be said by anyone.

It's mostly his romantic and spiritual poems that have captured English-speaking fans. (He's quite popular on the wedding circuit these days.)

Rumi -- like Shakespeare and Mozart-- travels well, says Akbar Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic studies department at American University. Rumi's message of unity and peace is needed in America right now, he says.

"You're seeing the Americanization of Rumi," Ahmed says. "I am mighty pleased, because the message is coming across -- the message of love. We are transcending our prejudices and stereotypes."