Book Reviews 119

Fundamentals of Rumi’s Thought:
A Mevlevi Sufi Perspective

Sefik Can (ed. and trans. by Zeki Saritoprak) 
New Jersey: The Light, 2004. 317 pages.

Is there room on the shelf for another book about Jalal al-Din Rumi, the
thirteenth-century mystic of Persia? Considering the great depth of his
genius, the answer has to be yes. Sefik Can’s Fundamentals of Rumi’s
Thought is one of the latest books on the subject, and is distinguished from
others in that its author is the current head of the Mevlevi order, the Sufi
order established after Rumi’s death and based on his teachings. In his biog-
raphy, the author is introduced as “the most authoritative spiritual figure of
the Order” and “the latest living Mesnevihan (Mesnevi reciter) who
received his ijazah (special certificate in the recitation of the Mesnevi) from
his spiritual master Tahir al-Mevlevi.” 

This book thus reflects the Mevlevi tradition as it is understood within
its Turkish milieu today. Neatly organized into four chapters, it deals with
the political and historical background of Anatolia during Rumi’s lifetime
(chapter 1), “Rumi’s Personality and Views” (chapter 2), his influence
(chapter 3), and “Rumi’s Sufi Order and His Approach to Orders” (chapter
4). A short bibliography and an index are also provided.

Throughout many passages, one can feel the author’s love and compas-
sion for Rumi. His sincerity and enthusiasm compel one to set aside acade-
mic concerns over historical accuracy and critical analysis in order to view
Rumi from a Mevlevi perspective. The book offers insight into a living
devotional approach to Rumi that often translates into an uplifting joy, which
is the hallmark of Rumi’s poems and which has animated the life of many
of his devotees. The reader will benefit from the relevant spiritual insights
offered. The section entitled “Beauty” is a good example of explaining
Rumi’s views and relating them to contemporary experiences. The author
writes:

According to Rumi, beauty takes us from ourselves, frees us from the
prison of the body, and brings us closer to another realm, to God. Thus we
find God within the impact of the fine arts on sensitive people. (p. 191)

The heart of this book is chapter 2, which features the author’s interpre-
tations of Rumi’s personality and views (pp. 97-246). Although a small por-
tion of this chapter is devoted to Rumi’s life and characteristics, most of it



deals with such issues as asceticism and ecstasy, love, belief and disbelief,
salvation, reason, beauty, poetry, music and whirling ceremonies, sorrow,
free will, and reincarnation. The section subtitled “Women” immediately
catches one’s eye, because it is rare to find an exposition of this topic in stud-
ies on Rumi. However, there are no groundbreaking interpretations here,
only conventional and apologetic explanations of Rumi’s views. The author
generalizes Rumi’s views by explaining the differences between the sexes
through a recourse to scientific “facts,” then compares the improved status
of women in Islam to other religions and societies. A questionable saying of
Prophet Muhammad is left without a footnote reference: “There is no doubt
that women are counterparts, similar, and equivalent to men.” 

Mentioning a few degrading stories about women in the Mesnevi, he
notes that Rumi’s goal is not to belittle women, but to point out that women
are created with more sensitivity than men so that human beings could mul-
tiply and populate Earth:

God has put more love and affection into women’s hearts than into the
hearts of men. God has created women with this nature so that they may
endure the difficulty of childbirth and motherhood. (p. 198)

All in all, there is a far greater depth to the mystical importance of Rumi’s
views of women and sexuality than is apparent in this brief section. 

A distinguishing strength of this book is its refusal to betray the truth
of Rumi as a Muslim and a Sufi. It is a common error of many irresponsi-
ble expositions of Rumi’s views and ideas to remove him from his Islamic
context, as if he were somehow an exception to the norm. Rumi is one of
the better-known figures of a Sufi tradition that emulates the Prophet’s
example. This is a prophetic tradition of embodying sincerity, compassion,
and the wisdom of inner meanings even as it uncompromisingly defends
Islam’s principles and diligently upholds its external forms. 

From all indications in this book, Sefik Can himself is a good represen-
tative of this tradition. At opportune moments in the book, he is quick to
point out that the message of transcendent love, acceptance, and diversity,
which characterize Sufism in general and Rumi in particular, are products of
Islamic civilization and reflective of Islam’s true essence. He writes:

In this book, I have tried to explain Rumi’s views on various issues with
examples from his works so that one does not have the impression that his
holiness has brought new, innovative ideas to religion. This great saint …
cannot be outside of the Muhammadi path. (p. 194)

120 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:2



Scholars of contemporary expressions of Sufism should find this book
very interesting. Contrary to its back-cover endorsement that promises an
“astonishing” level of engagement with all of the classical Persian sources,
this engagement is kept to a bare minimum. This book remains a devo-
tional work. True to its subtitle, it is “A Mevlevi Sufi Perspective.” On a
more academic note, the author has a somewhat uncritical approach to his-
torical sources or facts of common knowledge. For example, Khorasan is
not “a city in modern Iran” – it is a province. The bibliography is meager,
the editorial work rather careless, and the translator has kept the Turkish
spellings, thereby saddling the reader with the task of deciphering many
names and terms that have traveled from Arabic to Persian to Turkish and
then to English. The reader might be well advised to read the epilogue first,
where the author humbly refers the reader back to Rumi, whom he
describes as: “This great person that we love, this great saint whose ideas
we cannot quite understand, this sultan of lovers of God.”

Mahdi Tourage
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations

University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Book Reviews 121