Rumi: A Life in Pictures (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781474475006)

Picturing the life story of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a premier Muslim mystic and the original Whirling Dervish, the images in three extant manuscripts of Aflaki's Wondrous Feats of the Knowers of God provide a unique way to interpret the text. Part One: History and Context provides the medieval Anatolian historical setting; the broad contours of literary and artistic works of Islamic Hagiography; and the specific details of the three manuscripts to be explored. Part Two: Text and Image proposes a method for interpreting a hybrid literary-visual document as a grand narrative of the Family Rumi at the inspirational and ethical core of a virtuous community: flourishing within a complex Muslim society under divine providence. Pictures in the three manuscripts were produced by studios of painters under the patronage of major late 16th-century Ottoman sultans. The result of their efforts is a kind of 'visualised hagiography' uniquely capable of suggesting distinctive and often surprising twists on the narratives, enhancing the text with images of striking beauty and rich detail.

Author: John Renard
ISBN-10: 1474475000
ISBN-13: 9781474475006
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2021
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.85lbs
Size: 9.80h x 6.90w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2022