Masnavi

Double-page illuminated frontispiece, 1st book (daftar) of the Collection of poems (Masnavi-i ma'navi), 1461 CE manuscript

The Masnavi, or Masnavi-I Ma'navi (Persian: مثنوی معنوی‎‎), also written Mathnawi, Ma'navi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi also known as Rumi, the celebrated Persian Sufi saint and poet. It is one of the best known and most influential works of both Sufism and Farsi Dari literature. The Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines.^[1][2] It is a spiritual writing that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being in true love with God.^[3]

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General description

The title Masnavi-I Ma'navi (Arabic: مثنوي معنوي‎‎) means in Arabic "Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning." The Masnavi is a poetic collection of anecdotes and stories derived from the Quran, hadith sources, and everyday tales. Stories are told to illustrate a point and each moral is discussed in detail. It incorporates a variety of Islamic wisdom but primarily focuses on emphasizing inward personal Sufi interpretation. This work by Balkhi is referred to as a “sober” Sufi text. It reasonably presents the various dimensions of Sufi spiritual life and advises disciples on their spiritual paths. “More generally, it is aimed at anyone who has time to sit down and ponder the meaning of life and existence.”^[4] The Masnavi is left unfinished by its author and is later completed by Mufti Ilahi Bakhsh Kandhlawi.

Creation of the Masnavi

Masnavi, a calligraphic specimen from 1490, Mevlana Museum, Konya, Turkey.

The Masnavi is a Sufi masterpiece which was started by the Rumi during the final years of his life. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 around the year 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273. The sixth and final book would remain incomplete.^[5]

It is documented that Rumi began dictating the verses of the Masnavi at the request of his treasured disciple, Husam al-Din Chalabi, who observed that many of Rumi’s followers dutifully read the works of Sana’i and ‘Attar. Thus, Rumi began creating a work in the didactic style of Sana’i and ‘Attar to complement his other poetry. These men met regularly in meetings where Rumi would deliver the verses and Chalabi would record it and recite back to him. During the final years of Rumi’s life, the Masnavi was being created.^[6]

Each book consists of about 4,000 verses and contains its own prose introduction and prologue. Considering there are no epilogues, one must read the preceding volumes to fully benefit from the wisdom presented by Rumi. Some scholars suggest that in addition to the incomplete work of Book 6, there might be a seventh volume.^[7]

Themes in the Masnavi

The six books of the Masnavi can be divided into three groups of two because each pair is linked by a common theme:^[8]

Masvani manuscript in Farsi Dari on paper, Shiraz, 1479.

• Books 1 and 2: They “are principally concerned with the nafs, the lower carnal self, and its self-deception and evil tendencies.”
• Books 3 and 4: These books share the principal themes of Reason and Knowledge. These two themes are personified by Rumi in the Biblical and Quranic figure of the Prophet Moses.
• Books 5 and 6: These last two books are joined by the universal ideal that man must deny his physical earthly existence to understand God’s existence.

In addition to the reoccurring themes presented in each book, Rumi includes multiple points of view or voices that continually invite his readers to fall into “imaginative enchantment.” There are seven principal voices that Rumi uses in his writing:

1. The Authorial Voice – Each passage reflects the authority of the majestic Sufi teacher narrating the story. This voice generally appears when it addresses You, God, and you, of all humankind.
2. The Story-telling Voice – The primary story is occasionally interrupted by side stories that help clarify a point being made in the original statement. Rumi sometimes takes hundreds of lines to make a point because he is constantly interrupting himself.
3. The Analogical Voice – This voice interrupts the flow of the narration because it entertains an analogy which is used to explain a statement made in the previous verse. Rumi’s Masnavi is filled with analogies.
4. The Voice of Speech and Dialogue of Characters – Rumi conveys many of his stories through dialogue and speeches presented by his characters.
5. The Moral Reflection – Rumi supports his voice of morality by including quotations from the Quran and various hadith stories of events in the life of the Prophet Mohammed.
6. The Spiritual Discourse – The Spiritual Discourse resembles the Analogical Voice where Rumi always includes a moral reflection on the wisdom revealed.
7. Hiatus – Rumi occasionally questions the wisdom conveyed though the verses. “Sometimes Rumi says that he cannot say more because of the reader’s incapacity to understand.”

Style of Rumi's Masnavi

Book one of the Masnavi must be read in order to understand the other five volumes. It is a poetic art where Rumi layers his writing. For example, he begins a story, then moves on to a story within that story, and again moves to another within that one. Through this composition style, the poet’s personal voice comes through to his audience. The Masnavi has no framed plot. Its tone includes a variety of scenes. It includes popular stories from the local bazaar to fables and tales from Rumi’s time. It also includes quotations from the Quran and from hadith accounts from the time of Mohammed.

Although there is no constant frame, style, or plot, Rumi generally follows a certain writing pattern that flows in the following order:^[9]

English translations

• Mathnawi Rumi, translation with commentary by M. G. Gupta with Rajeev, in six volumes Hardbound edition, M.G. Publishers, Agra, Paperback edition, Huma Books,34 Hirabagh Colony, Agra 282005, India. Source material is the Farsi Dari text circulated by the Department of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi.

A manuscript of the Masnavi from the city of Shiraz.

• The Mesnevi of Mevlānā Jelālu'd-dīn er-Rūmī. Book first, together with some account of the life and acts of the Author, of his ancestors, and of his descendants, illustrated by a selection of characteristic anedocts, as collected by their historian, Mevlānā Shemsu'd-dīn Ahmed el-Eflākī el-'Arifī, translated and the poetry versified by James W. Redhouse, London: 1881. Contains the translation of the first book only.
• Masnaví-i Ma'naví, the Spiritual Couplets of Mauláná Jalálu'd-din Muhammad balkhi, translated and abridged by E. H. Whinfield, London: 1887; 1989. Abridged version from the complete poem. On-line editions at Sacred Texts and on wikisource.
• The Masnavī by Jalālu'd-din balkhi or Rūmī. Book II, translated for the first time from the Persian into prose, with a Commentary, by C.E. Wilson, London: 1910.
• The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín balkhi, edited from the oldest manuscripts available, with critical notes, translation and commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson, in 8 volumes, London: Messrs Luzac & Co., 1925-1940. Contains the text in Persian. First complete English translation of the Mathnawí.
• The Masnavi: Book One, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-280438-3. Translated for the first time from the Persian edition prepared by Mohammad Estelami, with an introduction and explanatory notes. Awarded the 2004 Lois Roth Prize for excellence in translation of Persian literature by the American Institute of Iranian Studies.
• balkhi, Spiritual Verses, The First Book of the Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, newly translated from the latest Persian edition of M. Este'lami, with an Introduction on a reader's approach to balkhi's writing, and with explanatory Notes, by Alan Williams, London and New York, Penguin Classics, Penguin, xxxv + 422 pp. 2006 ISBN 0-14-044791-1.
• The Masnavi: Book Two, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-921259-0. The first ever verse translation of the unabridged text of Book Two, with an introduction and explanatory notes.

Paraphrases of English translations

• The Essential balkhi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A. J. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996 ISBN 0-06-250959-4; Edison (NJ) and New York: Castle Books, 1997 ISBN 0-7858-0871-X. Selections.
• The Illuminated balkhi, translated by Coleman Barks, Michael Green contributor, New York: Broadway Books, 1997 ISBN 0-7679-0002-2.

Russian translation

A Russian translation of the Masnavi was unveiled in the Russian State Library in 2012.^[10]

See also

• List of stories in the Masnavi
• Masnavi (poetic form)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Masnavi.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Masnavi I Ma'navi

• Farsi Dari version is available at www.RumiSite.com
• Guardian series of blogs on the Masnavi by Franklin Lewis, 2009
• An abridged version translated by E.H. Whinfield, (1898)
• Dar al Masnavi
• Treasure of National Library of Turkey 18th century Masnavi in Nesih calligraphy, Herat
• The Song of the Reed (part one)
• Urdu poetic forms