The Sufi saint Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) is considered "the supreme genius of Islamic mysticism," and has been called ',the greatest mystical poet of any age." As a young boy he showed all the signs of saintliness and his father called him Maulana, "Our Master." By age twenty-four he was an acknowledged Master of Arabic grammar, Islamic law, Koranic commentary, astronomy, and Suli lore. But it wasn't until he met his Master, Shams-I Tabriz, at the age of thirty-seven, that he came to experience the highest truth. Many legends surround this meeting, and they all tell of the dramatic destruction of Rumi's books by Shams, and Rumi's recognition that book-knowledge could not lead him to the highest truth. Rumi's son wrote: 'After meeting Shams, my father danced all day and sang all night. He had been a scholar-he became a poet. He had been an ascetic-he became drunk with love." But the ecstatic ...
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