Exciting to those unfamiliar with Rumi’s verse as well as to the veteran scholar, this volume, following on Love Is My Savior, offers more of the little-known Arabic poems of Mawlana Rumi. These poems take the reader on a journey of spiritual search, ecstatic union, universal salvation, and mystic reconciliation, in which Rumi reveals his soul and welcomes everyone to his spiritual feast. This dual-language volume, with its informative introduction, is one of the first to bring Rumi’s Arabic poems into English, and it opens a treasury of Rumi’s mystic thought and electrifying poetry. The poems pulsate with desire and longing, with erotic meaning, and with ecstatic celebration. Rumi found in his mystic poetry a vehicle for the expression of the endless spiritual bounties of love. The reader will find, at the center of his faith and doctrine, love and a strong belief in universal salvation and unlimited generosity.

Nesreen Akhtarkhavari is an Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Culture and the Director of Arabic Studies at DePaul University, where she teaches Arabic literature, culture, film, media, and translation.

Anthony A. Lee is an award-winning poet and Lecturer of History at UCLA and at West Los Angeles College, specializing in African American History, African History, and the African Diaspora in Iran.