We are excited to announce the publication of Dancing before God’s Beauty: Exploring Rūmī’s Poetic Universe, Mystical Philosophy, and Reception History, a new study on the Persian mystic poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, which offers fresh insights into his life, teachings, and enduring legacy.

Across thirteen chapters, scholars introduce innovative perspectives on under-explored and emerging themes, from the hagiography written by Rūmī’s son, Sulṭān Valad, and his journey towards accepting spiritual leadership, to Rūmī’s passionate relationship with his beloved friend, Shams-i Tabrīzī. The volume also provides new approaches to reading Rūmī’s monumental didactic narrative, the Mathnavī. Topics range from shāhid-bāzī – worshipping a beautiful face to commune with the divine – to supplication (munājāt), immolation, sensory perception, and the transformative role of music in reaching ecstatic states. Chapters deal with Rūmī’s reception history, examining the works of figures such as Anqaravī (d. 1041/1631) and Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı (1900-1982), as well as the Dutch-Iranian novelist Kader Abdolah. The book further explores Rūmī’s visual reception history and his impact on contemporary artists. Finally, it examines Rūmī’s popularity in the United States, analysing how his poetry continues to offer people from diverse backgrounds a Lacanian “imaginary”: an internalized representation of the spiritual.

The book contains contributions by A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, Abolfazl Moshiri, Alan Williams, Lloyd Ridgeon, Eliza Tasbihi, Maarten Holtzapffel, Arash Ghajarjazi, Fatemeh Naghshvarian, Rokus de Groot, Gökçen B. Dinç, Ewa Dynarowicz, Kasper Tromp and Fariba Enteshari.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter	I
Table of Contents	V
Acknowledgements	1
Notes on Transliteration	3
Rūmī Revisited: New Insights into His Life, Teaching and Legacy Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab	5
Reassessing Rūmī’s Relationship with Shams-i Tabrīzī Abolfazl Moshiri	19
The Oldest Account of Rūmī’s Life: The Verse Hagiography of Rūmī’s Son, Sulṭān Valad Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab	35
Intensification and the ‘Circle of Existence’ in Rūmī’s Mathnavī Alan Williams	83
Rūmī’s Reflections on Handsome Young Boys: Shāhid-Bāzī and the Case of Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī Lloyd Ridgeon	107
Windows into Ottoman Sufism: Reading Rūmī’s Poetry Through the Prism of Mevlevī Commentator Ismāʿīl Anḳaravī (d. 1041/1631) Eliza Tasbihi	123
Talking to God Through Munājāt (‘Private Invocation’) Rūmī’s Story of Moses and the Shepherd Maarten Holtzapffel	141
The Pleasures of Being Burnt: The Image of Fire in Rūmī’s Story of Ukhdūd Arash Ghajarjazi	161
Problematising Truth-Writing: The Parable of the Elephant in the Dark Fatemeh Naghshvarian	181
Rūmī and Poetry, Music, and Dance Rokus de Groot	197
Reception History
Writing the History of Islam In-Between: Abdülbâki Gölpınarlı (1900 – 1982) and His ‘Thorny Claims’ on Mevlânâ, ‘Women in Islam’ and Alevi Mevlevis Gökçen B. Dinç	211
Discursive Role of References to Sufi Poets in the Work of Kader Abdolah Ewa Dynarowicz	233
Rūmī’s Mystical (Re‐)Orientation of Contemporary Art Practices Kasper Tromp	249
Chalice of Love: How Rūmī’s Language of Love Affects His Readers Today Fariba Enteshari	269
Contributors	285
Bibliography	289
Index