Now I recite rhymes and poems and songs.вЂќ Centuries after his death, RumiвЂ™s work is recited, chanted, set to music and used as inspiration for novels, poems, music, films, YouTube videos and tweets (Gooch tweets his translations Why does RumiвЂ™s work endure? вЂњThat was codified after his death into elegant meditative dance.вЂќ Or, as Rumi wrote, in Ghazal 2,351: вЂњI used to recite prayers. вЂњRumi would whirl while he was meditating and while composing poetry, which he dictated,вЂќ said Gooch. He wrote in couplets a six-volume spiritual epic, The Masnavi.вЂќДuring these years, Rumi incorporated poetry, music and dance into religious practice. He wrote 2,000 rubayat, four-line quatrains. He wrote 3,000 to Shams, the prophet Muhammad and God. вЂњMost of the poetry we have comes from age 37 to 67. After three years Shams disappeared вЂ“ вЂњpossibly murdered by a jealous son of Rumi, possibly teaching Rumi an important lesson in separation.вЂќ Rumi coped by writing poetry. вЂњThe two of them have this electric friendship for three years вЂ“ lover and beloved disciple and sheikh, itвЂ™s never clear.вЂќ Rumi became a mystic. вЂњRumi was 37, a traditional Muslim preacher and scholar, as his father and grandfather had been,вЂќ says Gooch. The transformative moment in RumiвЂ™s life came in 1244, when he met a wandering mystic known as Shams of Tabriz. Today RumiвЂ™s tomb draws reverent followers and heads of state each year for a whirling dervish ceremony on 17 December, the anniversary of his death. His final stop was Konya, in Turkey, where Rumi spent the last 50 years of his life. вЂњThe map of RumiвЂ™s life covers 2,500 miles,вЂќ says Gooch, who has traveled from RumiвЂ™s birthplace in Vakhsh, a small village in what is now Tajikistan, to Samarkand in Uzbekistan, to Iran and to Syria, where Rumi studied at Damascus and Aleppo in his twenties.

вЂњHeвЂ™s this compelling figure in all cultures,вЂќ says Brad Gooch, who is writing a biography of Rumi to follow his critically acclaimed books on Frank OвЂ™Hara and Flannery OвЂ™Connor. The ecstatic poems of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born 807 years ago in 1207, have sold millions of copies in recent years, making him the most popular poet in the US.

Rumi ghazals