Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Genre: Biography, History, Poetry, Religion (Sufism/Islam), Non-Fiction

Book Review:
The poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi is a phenomenon. Born more than eight centuries ago, this Persian mystic and poet is today one of the best-selling poets in America, beloved for his ecstatic verses on love, longing, and the divine. But the life behind the poems has long remained shrouded in legend. In Rumi's Secret, acclaimed biographer Brad Gooch sets out to uncover the man, delivering a masterful and deeply researched portrait of a spiritual genius.

Gooch's biography is a work of impressive scholarship, but it is also a compelling narrative that reads with the ease of good fiction. He traces Rumi's extraordinary journey across the medieval world, a life shaped by the cataclysmic events of his time. Rumi was born in 1207 in Central Asia, and his family was forced to flee the approaching Mongol hordes, traveling thousands of miles across Persia before finally settling in Konya, in present-day Turkey. It was there that Rumi became a respected Muslim preacher and scholar, a man of tradition and learning.

But his life was transformed by a single, electrifying encounter. In 1244, a wild and enigmatic wanderer named Shams of Tabriz appeared in Konya. Shams was a Sufi mystic, a man who sought direct, ecstatic experience of the divine. He and Rumi formed an intense and inseparable bond, becoming teacher and pupil, friend and beloved. Their relationship was a spiritual love story that shattered Rumi's conventional piety and unleashed a torrent of poetry. Shams taught Rumi to whirl, to lose himself in music and dance, and to express his longing for God in verses of breathtaking beauty.

When Shams mysteriously disappeared, Rumi was plunged into grief. But he transformed his pain into poetry, composing thousands of lyric poems and the vast epic of the Masnavi, his masterpiece. Gooch brilliantly evokes this creative explosion, showing how Rumi's poetry was born from the ''secret'' of his love for Shams, a love that became a metaphor for the soul's longing for union with the divine.

Rumi's Secret is a triumph of biographical writing. It brings us closer than ever to the man behind the myths, a figure of profound spiritual wisdom and passionate humanity. For anyone who has ever been moved by Rumi's poetry, this book is an essential and deeply rewarding read, illuminating both the life and the work of one of the world's greatest poets. As the Wall Street Journal noted, ''We will never fully know Rumi, but thanks to Mr. Gooch, we know him better.''