The Illustrated Rumi
A Treasury of Wisdom from the Poet of the Soul
Philip Dunn, Manuela Dunn Mascetti, and R. A. Nicholson (trans.)
©2000 The Book Laboratory
HarperSanFrancisco
255 pages
ISBN 0-06-062017

"[All Rumi's] words present the magic thread that we can follow to transform an everyday event into a jewel touched by divine wisdom." The quote comes from the introduction to this richly illustrated edition of selections from Rumi's works. Rumi's Mathnawi alone contained some 24,000 verses; and then there is the shorter, but perhaps more famous Divani Shamsi Tabriz. No one has attempted more than a presentation of selections since the poet's recent reappearance in the public eye. What is different about The Illustrated Rumi is the richness of setting in which the selections from the Mathnawi and the Divani Shamsi Tabriz appear.

Rumi is presently the best selling poet in America-a fact that has been spurred by the interest in his life and work by such celebrities as Deepak Chopra, Demi Moore, and Madonna. We in schools are a little behind the times; when I ask classes of quite bright students who their country's best selling poet is, the rare individuals who get it right usually heard it from someone in class last semester or last year. In any case, it's time for us to catch up, and The Illustrated Rumi is an attractive beginning place for at least three reasons.

First of all, I emphasize the words "beginning place." Teachers already familiar with Rumi will not be aided greatly by either this text's introductions or its translations. The introductions are, nevertheless, clear presentations on the basics Rumi's life-from his birth in Balkh to his move the Konya to the arrival from Tabriz of Shams-and his works. This book was not edited to be a work of scholarly erudition, but rather to introduce the beginner to the mystic with the color and culture of his environment.

A second attractive feature of The Illustrated Rumi is its easy interweaving of prose and poetry, of Rumi's tales or parables and the verse we already know through Coleman Barks or the Helminskis.

The third aspect of the work, and the one that really makes it special, is the "illustrated" facet of this book. There is not a two-page spread in the work that appears unadorned by deep reds and ochres, or the distinctive blues and greens of Islam. Most illustrations are from the Persian miniature tradition, and most, again, have been carefully selected to "fit" with the poem or story they accompany.

What the reader of this work ends with is a warm, rich appreciation of a poet-teacher-story teller he or she wishes he had met long before. The Illustrated Rumi is a great place to make this acquaintance.


review ©2001 by David Streight and RSiSS

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