RUMI'S MASNAVI

Faciliated by Dr. Nicholas Boylston

Masnavi-ye Ma'navi

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.

This course will be facilitated by Dr. Nicholas Boylston. Dr. Boylston is a specialist in Persian literature and Islamic mysticism who studied for multiple years at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran. He obtained his PhD in Persian Literature from Georgetown University. He has previously taught at Harvard and is currently professor of Islamic Studies at Seattle University.