Mystical Poems of Rumi; First Selection, Poems 1-200

　　Jalal al-Din Rumi, who wrote and preached in Persia during the thirteenth century, was inspired by a wandering mystic, or dervish, named Shams al-Din. Rumi's vast body of poetry includes a lengthy poem of religious mysticism, the Mathnavi, and more than three thousand lyrics and odes, many of which came to him while he was in a state of trance.