We are pleased to announce the highly anticipated publication by BIPS Research Director, Professor Alan Williams:  

The Masnavi of Rumi
A new English Translation with Persian Text and Explanatory Notes

Translated with an introduction, notes and analysis by Alan Williams
Including the Persian text edited by Mohammad Este’lami

Jalaloddin Rumi’s Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, or ‘Spiritual Couplets’, composed in the 13th Century, is a monumental work of poetry in the Sufi tradition of Islamic mysticism. For centuries before his love poetry became a literary phenomenon in the West, Rumi’s Masnavi had been revered in the Islamic world as its greatest mystical text. Drawing upon a vast array of characters, stories and fables, and deeply versed in spiritual teaching, it takes us on a profound and playful journey of discovery along the path of divine love, toward its ultimate goal of union with the source of all Truth.  In Book One of the Masnavi, the first of six volumes, Rumi opens the path towards higher spiritual understanding. In Book Two, we travel with Rumi toward an understanding of the deeper truth and reality, beyond the limits of the self.  Alan Williams’s authoritative new translation is rendered in highly readable blank verse and includes the original Persian text for reference,and with explanatory notes along the way. True to the spirit of Rumi’s poem, this new translation establishes the Masnavi as one of the world’s great literary achievements for a global readership. 

Books 1 & 2 can be purchased here. To receive the 35% discount offered to BIPS members, type in offer code (RUMIBIPS) at checkout. Please note, this discount is only valid until 30 June 2020.