Whinfield, E.H.

The Masnavi is an extensive Persian masnavi (a poetic form) written by Rumi, and one of the most influential works in the history of Sufism. It is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. Ascribed to be like a "Quran in Persian", some Muslims regard the Masnavi as one of the most important works of Islamic literature, falling behind only the Quran. It has been viewed by many commentators as the greatest mystical poem in world literature. It…