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Reviewer 417176
It is rather hard to find the right words to describe this interesting friendship between the two men of knowledge, Mevlana Rumi and the traveling dervish, Shams of Tabriz. It is a story that dates back to the 13th century, and causes a great public interest even today. Last year I got familiar with this story reading the book by Elif Shafak “The Forty Rules of Love". Shafak gives us a contemporary story of a middle-aged woman who finds herself unlucky with the life she’s living, so she falls in love with a person who she has never seen, Aziz Z. Zahara, the author of the novel Shafak uses to bring us a very interesting comparative story about Rumi and Shams. For me, that was one of those books that you don’t want to put down, but it was also an excellent reason to be interested in Rumi’s verses. So, when I saw “Warriors of Love” in front of me, I knew I had to read it.
James Cowan gives us an introduction into the lives of Rumi and Shams. The way Cowan describes this intriguing story will surely be interesting to all of you who read it for the first time, although for me there were not so many informations I didn't know before. Nevertheless, the author of the introductory study was able to answer the question I had in my mind for a long time; is this kind of male friendship, based on the exchange of knowledge and efforts to reach the highest truths about life and God, characteristic only for the Islamic culture and centuries that has been long behind us, or similar examples can also be found elsewhere? Though I had some examples on my mind, Cowan brings his answer to my question.
He compared the friendship of Rumi and Shams with the relationship between the brothers Vincent and Theo van Gogh, with epic heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Dante and Vergilius, the Italian Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino and his friend Giovanni Cavalcante, Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday, French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and composer Richard Wagner, Nikos Hazantzakis and Greek Zorba. Athough these are excellent examples of friendship, they had no mythical dimensions like the one of Rumi and Shams. Cowan says that their friendship is an archetype of unity like no other we knew in history or literature.
Shams and Rumi are examples of friends who have found teachers among themselves, as opposed to many who had teacher-student relationship. For one another they were a friend and a guide, not a servant. Their friendship was totally equal because they were both at a very high spiritual level so they could progress far more together. Shams was the cause of Rumi's transformation into a poet, and Rumi was inspired by their friendship, mythical friendship, like no other mentioned in Islam since the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
The death of Shams of Tabriz thus brings only the end of their physical friendship, while spiritually it continues through Rumi's verses. Shams's death was an ultimate sign of friendship to Rumi, the moment in which a friend renounced his own life to allow the other to completely free himself from his influence and to allow him to further increase the heights that were intended for him.
Though Rumi in his verses never renounces the principles of his Islamic faith, he is convinced that the religion of love crosses the boundaries of all doctrines, including religious ones. Cowan says that Rumi's pantheism (or panentheism, as he states) was directed at one of the supreme goals: the unification of mankind with God. Perhaps with this idea, his verses today are shared throughout the world, especially from the 18th and 19th century, when translations into European languages became available to the general public. Shams's thoughts needed a little longer, only in 1990, after the various records of his thoughts were found in Turkish archives, they saw the light of day and gave the other dimension and the integrity to the well-known thoughts of his friend Rumi.
Although it would be wonderful to read the Rumi's verses in the original language, because I believe that is the only way one can reach the depths that he discovered, the verses that Cowan brings to us are quite a worthy substitute. So if you're in the mood for some poetry and very interesting introductory study about lives of Shams and Rumi by James Cowan, I certainly recommend this book to you. Those of you who would like something a bit easier to read, I suggest to go with "The Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak. Or, maybe you could just read both of them...
James Cowan gives us an introduction into the lives of Rumi and Shams. The way Cowan describes this intriguing story will surely be interesting to all of you who read it for the first time, although for me there were not so many informations I didn't know before. Nevertheless, the author of the introductory study was able to answer the question I had in my mind for a long time; is this kind of male friendship, based on the exchange of knowledge and efforts to reach the highest truths about life and God, characteristic only for the Islamic culture and centuries that has been long behind us, or similar examples can also be found elsewhere? Though I had some examples on my mind, Cowan brings his answer to my question.
He compared the friendship of Rumi and Shams with the relationship between the brothers Vincent and Theo van Gogh, with epic heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Dante and Vergilius, the Italian Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino and his friend Giovanni Cavalcante, Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday, French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and composer Richard Wagner, Nikos Hazantzakis and Greek Zorba. Athough these are excellent examples of friendship, they had no mythical dimensions like the one of Rumi and Shams. Cowan says that their friendship is an archetype of unity like no other we knew in history or literature.
Shams and Rumi are examples of friends who have found teachers among themselves, as opposed to many who had teacher-student relationship. For one another they were a friend and a guide, not a servant. Their friendship was totally equal because they were both at a very high spiritual level so they could progress far more together. Shams was the cause of Rumi's transformation into a poet, and Rumi was inspired by their friendship, mythical friendship, like no other mentioned in Islam since the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
The death of Shams of Tabriz thus brings only the end of their physical friendship, while spiritually it continues through Rumi's verses. Shams's death was an ultimate sign of friendship to Rumi, the moment in which a friend renounced his own life to allow the other to completely free himself from his influence and to allow him to further increase the heights that were intended for him.
Though Rumi in his verses never renounces the principles of his Islamic faith, he is convinced that the religion of love crosses the boundaries of all doctrines, including religious ones. Cowan says that Rumi's pantheism (or panentheism, as he states) was directed at one of the supreme goals: the unification of mankind with God. Perhaps with this idea, his verses today are shared throughout the world, especially from the 18th and 19th century, when translations into European languages became available to the general public. Shams's thoughts needed a little longer, only in 1990, after the various records of his thoughts were found in Turkish archives, they saw the light of day and gave the other dimension and the integrity to the well-known thoughts of his friend Rumi.
Although it would be wonderful to read the Rumi's verses in the original language, because I believe that is the only way one can reach the depths that he discovered, the verses that Cowan brings to us are quite a worthy substitute. So if you're in the mood for some poetry and very interesting introductory study about lives of Shams and Rumi by James Cowan, I certainly recommend this book to you. Those of you who would like something a bit easier to read, I suggest to go with "The Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak. Or, maybe you could just read both of them...
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