The festival will start with a welcome and opening concert on Friday night and continue with two wonderful days of talks, participatory events, music, theatre and dance, all celebrating the life, work and global influence of the internationally acclaimed poet and mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi.
One of the giants of world literature, Rumi has inspired countless artists, musicians and seekers after truth. Born in the 13th century in Rum in Persia, Rumi is much more than an icon of middle eastern culture. His message of love, tolerance and the nurturing of the best aspirations in the human being is of global significance and as relevant today as in his own time.
The Festival is a gathering of all who, like Rumi, love truth and beauty and who search for the face of unity wherever it shows itself, in whatever form it takes. It is a celebration in word, dance and music of our common humanity, our aspiration for peace and harmony, of the opportunity in this life for transformation through self-knowledge and love, and of the single source of all beauty of expression.
When? 2nd-4th August 2013
Where? The Beshara School at Chisholme House, Roberton, Nr Hawick Scottish Borders TD9 7PH
Who? Kudsi Erguner Alan Williams Emily Young Whirling Dervish Troupe Roderick Grierson Ismail Acar Shireena Stewart and the Young Actors company More to be announced soon...
Website? www.rumifestival.org
Facebook page? www.facebook.com/rumifestival2013
Twitter feed? @rumifest
Jelaluddin Rumi was born in Balkh, in Persia, in 1207. His father, Baha ad-Din, was himself an eminent theologian and preacher, as well as being a mystic and a writer, who was a source of constant inspiration to his son. In 1219, when Rumi was 12, the whole family had to leave Balkh to escape from the Mongol hordes in Turkey, sometime around 1226.
His father died in 1230, leaving behind him many devoted disciples, one of whom was the reigning Selçuk Sultan who had invited him to Konya to take up the office of preacher and teacher. In 1231 a former pupil of Baha ad-Din, Burhan ad-Din of Tirmidh, arrived at Konya. On finding out about his teacher’s death he undertook to carry on with the spiritual education of the young Jelal ad-Din. On the death of Burhan ad-Din, Rumi was obliged to assume the position of shaykh, and attracted thereby an ever-increasing following. In appearance, he was at that time an ascetic, a religious scholar concerned with the sacred law, who preached just as his father had done (1240-1244).
But then in the year 1244, when Rumi was 37, a mysterious stranger, a wandering dervish, came to Konya from Tabriz, and this stranger, Shamsuddin (Sun of the religion) – was to have the most profound effect on Rumi’s life and whole way of being. After three years of this friendship Shamsuddin vanished mysteriously. Some said that he had been murdered by Rumi’s followers in jealousy, but no trace of his body was ever found.
It was now, around the age of forty, that he began to write poems. His best known work is the Mathnawi, which has been called by some ‘the Persian Koran’. It is a unique expression of love for the beauty of the Real Beloved, a treasure trove of wisdom and insight, tale and fable, metaphor and spiritual teaching.
Rumi died in 1273, and is buried in Konya. Every year pilgrims flock to Konya on the day of his death, 17th December, for what he called his ‘nuptial night’, the time of his re-union with the Beloved. During his life his followers had called him “Mevlana”, meaning “Master”, and referred to themselves as “Mevlevi”. Rumi, however, was never intentionally the founder of the Mevlevi Order of dervishes as such, for his primary concern was only with the love of God and its dissemination, to help others find union. It was his son, Sultan Welad, who after his father’s death made his father’s teaching and way into a formal affair, a tariqa, and it is thanks to him that there are the so-called Whirling Dervishes today.
from a paper by R. Brass written for the Beshara School
Subscribe in a reader to the latest Literary Festival & Book Award News
Subscribe to Literary Festival News Service by Email
If you are involved in this festival you can update or change details via the organisers page . Authors can list here.