Rumi
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Picturing the life story of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a premier Muslim mystic and the original Whirling Dervish, the images in three extant manuscripts of Aflaki’s Wondrous Feats of the Knowers of God provide a unique way to interpret the text. Part One: History and Context provides the medieval Anatolian historical setting; the broad contours of literary and artistic works of Islamic Hagiography; and the specific details of the three manuscripts to be explored. Part Two: Text and Image proposes a method for interpreting a hybrid literary-visual document as a grand narrative of the Family Rumi at the inspirational and ethical core of a virtuous community: flourishing within a complex Muslim society under divine providence. Pictures in the three manuscripts were produced by studios of painters under the patronage of major late 16th-century Ottoman sultans. The result of their efforts is a kind of ‘visualised hagiography’ uniquely capable of suggesting distinctive and often surprising twists on the narratives, enhancing the text with images of striking beauty and rich detail.
John Renard received a PhD in Islamic Religious Studies, Harvard Univ. 1978, focusing on medieval Arabic and Persian religious texts, the history of Sufism, and Islamic art. He has taught since then in Saint Louis University’s department of Theological Studies. Publications thematically related to this volume include: Crossing Confessional Boundaries: Exemplary Lives in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Traditions (California 2020); Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment and Servanthood (California 2008); and All the Kings Falcons: Rumi on Prophets and Revelation (SUNY 1994).