1472: "Rumi and Poetry"
Interesting Things with JC #1472: "Rumi and Poetry" – Rumi’s days ran the same for years until a stranger showed up and challenged everything he thought he understood. Then the man disappeared, and the fallout pushed Rumi into writing that still grips readers centuries later.
Curriculum - Episode Anchor
Episode Title: Rumi and Poetry
Episode Number: 1472
Host: JC
Audience: Grades 9–12, college intro, homeschool, lifelong learners
Subject Area: World Literature, History, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies
Lesson Overview
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• Define key historical and literary terms connected to Rumi’s life and poetry.
• Compare Rumi’s major works, including the Masnavi-i Manavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi.
• Analyze how Rumi’s meeting with Shams-e Tabriz influenced his worldview and creative output.
• Explain why Rumi’s poetry continues to resonate across cultures and centuries.
Key Vocabulary
• Jalal ad Din Rumi (jal-al ad-deen roo-mee) — A 13th-century Persian poet and scholar whose writings explore spiritual longing; for example: “Rumi’s work continues to influence readers worldwide.”
• Balkh (bahlk) — A historic city in present-day northern Afghanistan, Rumi’s birthplace; used in context: “Rumi was born in Balkh before his family fled westward.”
• Shams-e Tabriz (shahms eh tah-breez) — A wandering dervish whose conversations with Rumi reshaped his thinking.
• Masnavi-i Manavi (mas-na-vee ee man-na-vee) — Rumi’s six-volume poetic work of over 25,000 verses that mixes stories with moral and spiritual lessons.
• Ghazal (guh-zal) — A classical poetic form built on tight, rhyming couplets often used to express longing or devotion.
Narrative Core
Open: Some writers craft words that feel lived rather than written. Rumi is introduced as one whose poetry resonates like something carried “in the bloodstream.”
Info: Rumi’s early life is grounded historically: born in 1207 in Balkh, his family migrated roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) toward Anatolia, settling in Konya. There, Rumi served as a scholar rooted in teaching and legal study.
Details: The turning point arrives in 1244 with his meeting of Shams-e Tabriz, a direct and penetrating thinker whose influence redirected Rumi’s life and writing. Shams’s later disappearance deepened Rumi’s introspection, producing some of his most enduring works.
Reflection: Rumi’s poetry communicates a disciplined form of love—one that reveals truth through hardship. His verses describe human experience, spiritual longing, and inner transformation, explaining his worldwide appeal.
Closing: These are interesting things, with JC.
A square cover image for “Interesting Things with JC #1472: Rumi and Poetry” shows a bright, open landscape in the Caucasus Mountains. Snow capped peaks rise sharply in the background under a clear blue sky with thin, wispy clouds. Tall evergreen trees frame both sides of the scene, and a narrow stream winds through a grassy valley in the foreground. A small group of hikers stands near the water, giving scale to the wide mountain basin. The top of the image has a black banner with bold white text reading “Interesting Things with JC #1472 — Rumi and Poetry.”
Transcript
Some writers put down words that feel less like lines on a page and more like something carried in the bloodstream. Rumi, Jalal ad Din Rumi (jal-al ad-deen roo-mee), wrote with that kind of pull. And the spark behind his work began with a single meeting that changed the course of his life.
He was born in 1207 in Balkh (bahlk), in what is now northern Afghanistan. As Mongol forces pushed west, families who saw trouble coming left early. His family moved across roughly 2,000 miles, about 3,200 kilometers, traveling through plateaus, dry plains, and the rough country of Anatolia until they settled in Konya (cone-yah). There, Rumi built a life as a scholar. His days followed a steady pattern built around teaching, prayer, and legal study.
Then came 1244. Rumi was thirty seven when he met Shams-e Tabriz (shahms eh tah-breez), a wandering dervish who spoke plainly and asked direct questions. Their conversations cut straight to what mattered: why the soul longs, what faith asks of a person, and how someone seeks God with honesty. That friendship shook up Rumi’s predictable life and pushed him toward a different way of seeing the world. And then Shms vanished. Whether he left or was forced out is still unclear, but the loss hit Rumi hard. The time that followed shaped his writing and pushed him deeper into reflection.
Rumi wrote about love, but not romance. He meant a force that strips away pride and shows a person who they really are. When he said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you,” he was naming something people have known for generations. Hard times can shape a person in a way comfort never will. And when he wrote, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop,” he was saying that the human and the divine are closer than most folks imagine.
His major works show how far he wanted to go. The Masnavi-i Manavi (mas-na-vee ee man-na-vee) holds more than 25,000 verses across six volumes. A full set weighs around 3 to 4 pounds, about 1.4 to 1.8 kilograms, and runs hundreds of pages. It shifts from stories to moral lessons to reflections on everyday life, which earned it the nickname “the Quran in Persian.”
The Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (dee-vahn eh shahms eh tah-bree-zee) moves differently. Built on ghazals (guh-zals), it delivers meaning in short, tight couplets. Rumi used familiar symbols from Persian literature: wine for God’s overwhelming presence, the tavern for letting go of status, and the beloved for the final goal of the spiritual path. These images helped him talk about longing in a way that felt grounded and clear.
What keeps Rumi popular today is not the size of his books but the clarity inside them. His manuscripts moved along old trade routes, got copied by hand, translated into Turkish and Urdu, and later into English. By the 2000s, he was one of the best selling poets in the United States, read by people who connected with the feeling even if they never learned Persian.
So we return to that first image, when words feel like pulse. Rumi lived through that shift. He began as a steady scholar and became a writer shaped by longing, loss, and a disciplined kind of love. His poems outlasted the roads he traveled, the classrooms he taught in, and even the silence Shams left behind. They remain because they point to a truth most folks learn sooner or later: the toughest moments can open the strongest doors.
These are interesting things, with JC.
Student Worksheet
Explain how Rumi’s family migration shaped his later experiences and worldview.
Describe the impact Shams-e Tabriz had on Rumi’s writing and thinking.
Compare the structure and themes of the Masnavi-i Manavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi.
Interpret one of Rumi’s quoted lines from the episode and explain its meaning in your own words.
Why do you think Rumi’s poetry continues to resonate with modern readers around the world?
Teacher Guide
Estimated Time: 60–75 minutes
Pre-Teaching Vocabulary Strategy:
Introduce terms using a Frayer-model approach: definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples. Play a short audio clip of a ghazal (non-Rumi) to demonstrate poetic rhythm.
Anticipated Misconceptions:
• Students may believe Rumi wrote primarily about romantic love rather than spiritual transformation.
• Students may assume the Masnavi and the Divan follow Western poetic structures.
• Some learners may mistakenly think Rumi and Shams were contemporaries of later Ottoman figures—clarify the 13th-century timeline.
Discussion Prompts:
• What does Rumi’s transformation reveal about how personal relationships shape creativity?
• How do symbols in poetry help writers communicate intangible ideas?
• Why might Rumi’s writings remain widely read even outside their original language and culture?
Differentiation Strategies:
• ESL: Provide bilingual glossaries (Persian/English or Turkish/English) when available; offer sentence frames for analysis questions.
• IEP: Chunk reading into manageable segments; allow oral responses in place of some written ones.
• Gifted: Invite comparison of Rumi’s work with later mystic poets such as Hafez or St. John of the Cross.
Extension Activities:
• Students compose a brief ghazal using couplets to express a personal insight or moment of transformation.
• Map Rumi’s migration route to illustrate geography and historical pressures from Mongol expansion.
• Analyze how translation choices affect meaning by comparing two English versions of the same Rumi couplet.
Cross-Curricular Connections:
• History: Mongol expansion in the 13th century.
• Religious Studies: Sufism and Islamic mysticism.
• Literature: Comparative poetry analysis focusing on metaphor and symbolism.
• Geography: Trade routes facilitating manuscript circulation.
Quiz
Q1. Where was Rumi born?
A. Tabriz
B. Balkh
C. Konya
D. Samarkand
Answer: B
Q2. What major event redirected Rumi’s life in 1244?
A. His first publication
B. Meeting Shams-e Tabriz
C. His return to Balkh
D. Mongol conquest of Konya
Answer: B
Q3. Approximately how many verses appear in the Masnavi-i Manavi?
A. 5,000
B. 12,000
C. 25,000+
D. 60,000
Answer: C
Q4. The Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi is primarily composed of which poetic form?
A. Epic
B. Ode
C. Ghazal
D. Sonnet
Answer: C
Q5. Which idea best summarizes Rumi’s view of hardship?
A. Hardship is meaningless
B. Hardship destroys identity
C. Hardship is avoided by discipline
D. Hardship can lead to greater insight
Answer: D
Assessment
Analyze how Rumi’s relationship with Shams-e Tabriz transformed his writing style and subject matter.
Evaluate why Rumi’s use of metaphor makes his work accessible across cultures and centuries.
3–2–1 Rubric
• 3: Accurate, complete, and demonstrates thoughtful insight with strong textual support.
• 2: Partially accurate or missing depth; some supporting detail present.
• 1: Inaccurate, vague, or unsupported responses.
Standards Alignment
Common Core ELA (CCSS):
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 — Students determine themes and analyze their development through Rumi’s transformation and poetic reflections.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4 — Students analyze figurative language in Rumi’s quoted lines and symbolic imagery.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2 — Students write explanatory responses interpreting poetic meaning.
C3 (Social Studies):
• D2.His.1.9-12 — Students evaluate historical events such as Mongol expansion as context for Rumi’s migration.
• D2.His.4.9-12 — Students analyze complex relationships among historical actors (Rumi and Shams).
ISTE:
• ISTE 3.3 Knowledge Constructor — Students curate historical sources (maps, translations) to understand cultural transmission of manuscripts.
International Equivalents:
• UK AQA English Literature AO2 — Analyze form, structure, and language to understand meaning in literary works.
• IB DP Literature 1.1, 1.2 — Analyze literary texts within historical and cultural contexts and stylistic choices by authors.
• Cambridge IGCSE Literature 4.1 — Demonstrate understanding of deeper meanings and authorial technique in poetry.
Show Notes
This episode traces the life of Jalal ad Din Rumi from his origins in Balkh through his family’s long migration into Anatolia and his eventual transformation into one of history’s most influential poets. The heart of the narrative centers on his meeting with Shams-e Tabriz, a moment that reshaped Rumi’s thinking, spiritual outlook, and creative work. The episode introduces students to Rumi’s major writings, including the Masnavi-i Manavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, and explores why his poetry—rooted in longing, loss, and disciplined reflection—continues to resonate globally. This context prepares learners to examine literary symbolism, historical movement, and the enduring power of cross-cultural ideas.
References
• Lewis, F. (2008). Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Oneworld Publications. https://www.oneworldacademics.com/books/rumi-past-and-present-east-and-west
• Schimmel, A. (1993). The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi. SUNY Press. https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Triumphal-Sun
• Keshavarz, F. (1998). Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi. University of South Carolina Press. https://uscpress.com/Reading-Mystical-Lyric
• Meier, F. (1992). Essays on Rumi. Brill Publishers. https://brill.com/display/title/2767
• Safi, O. (2018). Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition. Yale University Press. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300225815/radical-love/
