Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi, best known to English-speaking audiences as Rumi, is considered to be one of the greatest of Sufi poets. Born in 1207 in Balkh (now Afghanistan), Rumi was ...view moreMowlana Jalaluddin Rumi, best known to English-speaking audiences as Rumi, is considered to be one of the greatest of Sufi poets. Born in 1207 in Balkh (now Afghanistan), Rumi was a teacher, theologian, and philosopher, as well as a mystic poet, whose influence spread throughout Afghanistan and central Asia,Turkey, and India. His most significant work is the Mathnawi, a multivolume work of stories and lyric poetry on teaching and Sufi lore. He also brought us the Mawlawiya (Mevlevi), a Sufi order that engages dance in its spiritual practices and that is better known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes.view less