Your idea of Rumi is wrong: The issue with the term Sufism
This is part one of three in a series titled How Orientalism Has Shaped the Understanding of Sufism in the West. It will explore how notions of Sufism, Mysticism, Islam and Orientalism has been posited in the West through the lens of Rumi and his surviving collections.
All you need to do is open Instagram and scroll down your explore page before coming upon the first of many inspirational quotes the photo-sharing app is filled with. At first, they appear to be innocent and inconsequential. They consist of the generic, oft-told sayings that revolve around believing in yourself, overcoming challenges despite the odds and living fully in the moment. Lately, however, a new genre of “quote-spirations” have come about in the form of poetry — more specifically that of Mawlana Muhammed Jalāl al-Dīn al-Balkhi (d.1207–1273), known to the world as Rumi. His poetry as seen a massive surge in popularity over the last few years. But what exactly do we know of him?
In part one of this series this article examines the issues behind the word ‘Sufism’, a term used to refer to Rumi’s religious-philosophical association.
