The Mathnawí of Jaláluʾddín Rúmí, Volume VIII: Commentary on Books 3 to 6

Volume 8 of Reynold A. Nicholson’s authoritative translation and edition of Rúmí’s magnum opus – reissued with a new foreword by Alan Williams – provides the commentary on books III to VI of the Mathnawí. The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí is his greatest work in every sense. As well as being his longest single composition, it is his most mature, as it was his last work, written from 1261 until his death in 1273 CE. It comprises six books, which amount to over 25,600 rhymed couplets in Nicholson’s edition, plus six brief prose prefaces, variously in Arabic and Persian. The Mathnawí relates a range of folk stories, from traditional Iranian and Muslim lore, as well as from pre-Islamic, Western Classical and Indian Sanskritic traditions. It also includes moral and mystically contemplative discourse, exegesis and meditation on the Qur’ān and Hadith, and stories not recorded before Rúmí’s writing, which may have been composed for the work. This volume is part of an eight-volume set by Nicholson. Three volumes present his edition of the Persian text, three volumes provide his English translations, and two volumes offer his commentary.