Rumi and Ghazal

Abstract

This article proposes a typology of the ghazals of Rumi in which there are various speaking personae and addressees. Understanding the different types of address, and the sometimes sudden shift in the voices of the poems helps us better understand their structure and message. To some extent these shifting voices mirror the style of address in the Qur’an, and Rumi indeed suggests that he thinks of his own poetry –in both the Masnavi and the Divan, as a kind of inspired writing, similar to revelation, so it is not surprising that the style of language reflects that of the Qur’an. Rumi’s poems are also very original in metaphor as well as in bending the structural rules of the ghazal.