Mawlana Rumi Resources On the Internet
By Ibrahim Gamard, Dar-al-Masnavi.org
November 2019
MASNAVI
(1) Masnavi.net (2016). Includes complete Persian text (by Madhî Azâr Yazdî), English translation (by Nicholson), Turkish translation (by Veled Chelebi Izbudak), and audio recordings (by Husayn Âhî: Books 1 & 6; and Amîr Nûrî: Books 2, 3, 4, & 5). Viewing options: Persian, Turkish, or English only; Persian text with Turkish translation or with English translation. Includes an excellent search function of the entire Masnavi in three languages. Persian audio options (via buttons in the left margin): line by line or continuous. Members of the Masnavi Project ("Muhammad," graduate student, programmer, project manager, and site owner who wishes to remain anonymous; FIrat Özdemir, programmer; and Ibrahim Gamard) took Masnavi texts previously scanned and placed on the Internet by others. The project manager chose the Yazdi Persian text, since it follows Nicholson's Persian text. Özdemir chose the Veled Chelebi Turkish translation as more literal than others and therefore more suitable for the Project; he also divided the audio recordings into over 25,000 mp3 files that match the Persian text. The reciters do not always read from the Yazdi text, but often read from the Masnavi text in Sharh-é jâmi'-yé masnavi by Karîm Zamânî. Gamard added all of Nicholson's corrections (from the indices that follow his translation of Book 4) needed to bring the first half of his translation into accord with the earliest known manuscript of the Masnavi (the "Konya Manuscript," completed 1278); he also added corrections from Nicholson's two books of commentary (where he wrote, "Translate..." ---meaning, "Translate instead"). In addition, he corrected the first pages of the Persian text. As a result, the translation begins with the original wording: "Listen to this reed-flute how it complains, telling a tale of separations"; the Persian text begins: "bi-sh'nû în nay chûn shikâyat mîkonad/ az judâ'î-hâ hikâyat mîkonad." However, the Persian audio begins with the later "improved" wording: "bi-sh'nû az nay chûn hikâyat mîkonad/ az judâ'î-hâ shikâyat mîkonad." Gamard also added English translations of obscene words and verses that Nicholson translated into Latin. Unfortunately, due to the project manager's lack of time, plans for improvement of the website (including the correction of many scanning errors that remain in the English text) had to be put on hold not long after the website was launched. A link to the website is here.
(2) Masnavî-yé ma'navî-yé jalâluddîn muhammad balkhî: tashîh wa muqadama: Muhammad 'Alî Movahhid. Tehran: Farhangistân Zabân wa Adab-é Farsî wa Nashr-é Hermes, in two volumes, 1396/2018. This is a correction of the earliest complete manuscript of Masnavi, called the "Konya Manuscript," dated 677/1278. Movahhid had long believed that the number of spelling and other errors downgraded its value as the sole authoritative manuscript. He studied eleven manuscripts written within thirty years after Mawlânâ's death. Four of these contained all six books: 677/1278 (= "â," called "G" by Nicholson); 687/1288 (= "qû," called "H" by Nicholson); 695/1295 (= "m," rejected by N. as an early MS), and 768/1366 (= "qâ," called "K" by N.). Seven others contain one book of Masnavi only: Book 6 (674/1275 = "hâ," called "P" by N.); Book 1 (680/1281 = "n," callled "N" by N.); Book 4 (680/1281 = "j," called "J" by N.); Book 4 (701/1301 = "qm"); Book 4 (undated = "w", probably written by Sultân Walad); Book 5 (undated = "ld", probably written by Sultân Walad); Book 6 (undated = "wld", with Sultân Walad's name written as the scribe). Movahhid believes that Sultân Walad also copied Books 1, 2, and 3 but that these became lost. In his view, Nicholson was too enamored of the 1278 MS ("G") and should have paid more attention to the 1288 MS ("H"), of which Nicholson had an incomplete copy. Movahhid stated that his corrected edition should be the new authoritative reference, since it is based on all of the earliest existing manuscripts, that is, unless other early manuscripts are found. An article on the new critical edition is here.
(3) Masnavî-yé ma'navî-yé mawlânâ jalâluddîn muhammad balkhî-rûmî, edited by Kâzim Bargnaysî, based on the Konya Manuscript, with plentiful diacritical marks [i'râb] (not just the minimal amount, as in other editions) and punctuation marks. In two volumes, 1382/2003. This edition is also available online, here.
(4) Online Persian text of the entire Masnavi, edition of 'Abdul Karîm Sorûsh, based on the Konya Manuscript: a link is here.
(5) Nicholson's translation of the Mathnawî, Books 1-4, beautifully recited by Jamil Morris: here. Recitation of Books 1-6 broadcast continually here. (Masnavi.net may be used to determine the location of the currently recited verses).
DIVAN
(6) Ganjoor.net. Online Persian text of the ghazals and tarji'bands, with excellent search capacity, plus some commentary and some matching audio files. It is based on the ubiquitous two-volume "mostly Forûzânfar" edition ("Kulliyât-e shams-e tabrîzî," which includes (without variants and diacritics) the first six volumes of his authentic ten-volume edition ("Kulliyât-e shams yâ dîvân-e kabîr); the remaining ghazals, all the tarji'bands, and all the rubâ'îs were taken from inferior sources. The link is here.
(7) "The Golpinarli/Ergin/Osborne/Sobhani-Foruzanfar Concordance." This enables one to find the corresponding ghazals and tarji'-bands that are based on the Konya Manuscript of the Dîvân-i Kabîr (that orders the ghazals and tarji'-bands according to poetic meter) and Forûzânfar's ten-volume edition (that orders the poems in the traditional alphabetical order). The concordance also lists the ghazals that have been accurately translated into English by scholars (such as Arberry, Chittick, Lewis, and more recently, by Osborne). The link is here.
(8) Dîvân-i Kabîr, translated by Jeffrey R. Osborne. Osborne has translated the entire Dîvân from Persian to English and has now (as of 3/19) self-published over half in twelve (of twenty anticipated) volumes, available on amazon.com.: Jalaluddin Rumi, Divan-i Kabir: The Quatrains (Volume I, 2017, 1-1084); Divan-i Kabir: The Quatrains (Volume II, 2017, 1085-1866); Divan-i Kabir: The First Meter (Volume III, 2018, 1-163); Divan-i Kabir: The Second Meter (Volume IV, 2018, 164-309); Divan-i Kabir: The Third Meter (Volume V, 2018, 310-549); Divan-i Kabir: The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Meters (Volume VI, 2018, 550-712); Divan-i Kabir: The Seventh Meter (Volume VII, 2018, 713-994); Divan-i Kabir: The Eighth Meter (Volume VIII, 2018, 995-1221); Divan-i Kabir: The Ninth Meter (Volume IX, 2018, 1222-1389); Divan-i Kabir: The Tenth Meter (Volume X, 2018, 1390-1510); Divan-i Kabir: The Eleventh Meter (Volume XI, 2019, 1512-1607); Divan-i Kabir: The Twelfth Meter (Volume XII, 2019, 1608-1711); Divan-i Kabir: The Thirteenth Meter (Volume XIII, 2019, 1712-1824); Divan-i Kabir: The Fourteenth Meter (Volume XIV, 2019, 1825-1938). This is a translation of Dîvân-e kabîr, kulliyyât-e shams-e tabrîzî mawlânâ jalâluddîn muhammad bin husayn balkhi-rûmî ma'rûf ba-môlavî, Tehran: Anjuman, 1304/2007, edited by Tôfîq Subhânî and based on the Konya Manuscript of the Dîvân, completed in two volumes in 1366-68 CE by Hasan ibni `Uthmân al-Mawlawî. This is a special edition in which the ghazals were ordered according to twenty-three poetic meters, plus mixed and rare meters. Osborne is self-taught in classical Persian and Arabic. He has studied the works of Rumi for over two decades and calls himself a "hobby Persianist." He wrote that with the odes, he "tried to follow Arberry's more literal approach so that the translations might act as a guide to students of the original text." A link for purchasing the volumes is here.
Osborne's complete translation is a welcome and much needed improvement over Nevit Ergin's complete translation from Turkish, poorly rendered into English, and published in twenty-two volumes: Mevlânâ Celâleddîn Rumi, Divan-i Kebîr, Meter 1 (Walla Walla, WA: Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture, 1995) through Meters 17 &19 (San Mateo, CA: Echo Publications and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, 2003). Ergin's translations of Meters 18, 20-23 & mixed, rare, and remaining meters were never published. Ergin translated GölpInarlI's Turkish translation of the Divan, which was based on the "Konya Manuscript," which Ergin claimed is the "original Divan" (which it is not: see Forûzânfar's introduction to his ten-volume edition). Ergin promoted a digitally perfected facsimile of the manuscript, which may be purchased via the link here.
(9) The Quatrains of Rumi: Rubâ'iyât-é Jalâluddîn Muhammad Rûmî-Balkhî, translated from Persian by Ibrahim Gamard and Rawan Farhadi, San Rafael, California: Sufi-Dari Books, 2008. The first complete translation of the quatrains attributed to Rumi. It is a translation of Volume 8 of Forûzânfar's edition of Kulliyât-é shams yâ dîvân-é kabîr (1,983 quatrains, Tehran: University of Tehran, 1342/1963--not to be confused with the edition in one or two volumes "edited by Forûzânfar," Kulliyât-e shams-e tabrîzî, Tehran, Amîr Kabîr, 1336/1957, and published with an inferior edition of the rubâ'iyât (originally published in Isfahan) prior to Forûzânfar's completion of his authentic edition of the rubâ'iyât. Insofar as Farhadi made corrections and improvements (such as better choice of variants) of Forûzânfar's Persian text, The Quatrains of Rumi serves as the current critical edition. The Persian text also contains useful diacritical marks. Farhadi ordered the quatrains in accordance with 135 themes ranging from love of the human beloved, metaphorical love becoming real love, divine love, and advice to the disciple and aspirant. Gamard identified 116 quatrains that were composed by earlier poets (such as 'Attâr and Sanâ'î) and put them in an appendix ("Quatrains Not by Mawlana"). The book contains a manual of Islamic and Islamic Sufi terms used in Persian poetry. Also included is a concordance of all previous translations and versions of the quatrains in English, enabling the reader to compare previous renditions with literal and accurate translations. Two versions of this are available on the Internet: the "New Quatrains Concordance" (http://dar-al-masnavi.org/pdf/quatrains_concord_new.pdf, a duplicate of the concordance in the published book, for faster searches) and the "Old Quatrains Concordance" (http://dar-al-masnavi.org/pdf/quatrains_concord_old.pdf, which contains the first words of translations and versions, for easier searches). Links for purchasing the volumes are: in the USA here. And in the UK here.
There are few places on the Internet where Forûzânfar's authentic edition of the quatrains is available (it begins: ay shab, shâd-î hamîsha, shâd â shâd â]. There is primarily one website (which has Bargnaysî's version of Forûzânfar's edition with diacritical marks). It begins here. It can also be found as the eighth volume in the original publication, here. (In contrast, the "pseudo-Forûzânfar," or Isfahan edition of the quatrains begins: an del ke shod û qâbil-é anwâr-é khudâ).
(10) The Rubais of Rumî: Mevlânâ Rubâîler, Konya, Turkey: Saray Medya YayInlarI, 2016, 495 pages. This is the second complete translation into English of the quatrains attributed to Rumi. It is a revision of the quatrains translated by Nevit O. Ergin as part of his translation of the entire Dîvân-i Kabîr into English (1990-2003) from GölpInarlI's Turkish translation of the entire Dîvân (1957-1974). GölpInarlI used a copy of the Konya Manuscript of the Dîvân (completed 1368 CE). Each ruba'i is presented with Persian text (by Hasan ibni 'Uthmân al-Mawlawî, the fourteenth century copyist, digitally produced facsimiles of each ruba'i), English translation (by Ergin), and Turkish version (by Merâl Ekmekçioglu). Since the Persian text is written in an archaic manner, it is often difficult to read. The English translations are of poor quality. Ergin was a Turkish physician who lived most of his life in the U.S. At first, he rendered GölpInarlI's translations into English as faithfully as he could; in later years, however, he took many liberties in reinterpreting the Turkish translations in accordance with his own idiosyncratic views about mysticism. As a result, many of his renditions of Rumi's quatrains are not translations, but interpretive versions. GölpInarlI's Turkish translations of the ruba'is are absent. Instead, there is an odd Turkish text that adopts some of the wording and paraphrases the Turkish translations of scholars such as GölpInarlI and Sefik Can, and sometimes even translations into Turkish from parts of Ergin's English versions. See the following review: here.
(11) Jalaluddin Rumi, Divan-i Kabir: The Quatrains (Volume I, 2017, 1-1084); Divan-i Kabir: The Quatrains (Volume I, 2017, 1085-1866). Translated from Persian and self-published by Jeffrey R. Osborne. This is the third complete translation of the quatrains attributed to Rumi. It is a translation of the rubâ'iyât section in volume two of the edition of Dîvân-i Kabîr by Tôfîq Sobhânî. Osborne wrote that since a literal translation had already been produced (by Gamard and Farhadi), he "felt free to be a bit more creative with the quatrains." A link for purchasing the two volumes of quatrains is here.
(12) Kullîyât-e shams-e tabrîzî, môlânâ jalâl al-dîn rûmî, edited by Kâzim Bargnaysî, based on the edition by Forûzânfar, with plentiful diacritical marks [i'râb] (not just the minimal amount, as in other editions) and punctuation marks. In two volumes, 1381/2002. This edition is available online, beginning here.
(13) Some audio recordings matching Persian texts of the ghazalîyât can be found on ganjoor.net (for example: here), as well as some recordings by 'Abdul Karîm Sorûsh (for example: here).
Arberry's translations from Persian of 400 of Rumi's ghazals (in one volume, combining the two earlier editions, Mystical Poems of Rumi, 1968 and Mystical Poems of Rumi: Second Selection, 1979) can be found online here.
PROSE WORKS
Discourses
(14) Fîhi mâ fîhi: wa payvast-hâ-yé nô-yafta, edited by Tôfîq Sobhânî. Tehran: Maydân Inqilâb, 1388/2009 may be found online here. A more recent edition (not identified, but dated 1397/2018), which follows and improves on Sobhânî's edition may be found here.
A. J. Arberry's translation into English (Discourses of Rumi. London: John Murray, 1961) is not on the Internet, except with some pages not displayed, here.
Seven Sermons
(15) Majâlis-é sab'a (haft khatâba), môlânâ jalâluddîn rûmî. Edited by Tôfîq Sôbhânî. Tehran: Intisharât-é Kayhân, 1365/1986. This edition can be found online here. And also here.
Only one of the sermons has been translated into English: Sermon 6, translated from Persian by Franklin Lewis. It can be found online here (look in section: "A SERMON BY RUMI").
OTHER RUMI RESOURCES
(16) Dar-al-Masnavi.org, the website of Ibrahim Gamard. Contains selected literal translations from the Masnavî and the Dîvân (together with commentary and transliteration of the Persian texts), an extensive links section, an affiliated discussion group, critiques of popularized versions of Rumi's poetry, Rumi quotes searches, articles regarding translation issues, and a variety of articles about the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling prayer ceremony [Sema], Rumi's life, and more. A link is here.
