SOURCE: Hamid, Farooq. “Storytelling Techniques in the Masnavi-yi Ma'navi of Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi: Wayward Narrative or Logical Progression?¹” Iranian Studies 32, no. 1 (winter 1999): 27-50.

In the following essay, Hamid considers the narrative structure of and absence of telos in Rumi's Mathnawi to explore the nature of language in that work.

ba‘d az samā‘ gūyī k-ān shūr-hā kujā shud yā khud na-būd chizī yā būd va ān fanā shud²

Confounded, after the samā‘ you inquire, “What became of that tumult?” I say, “Either it wasn't anything or maybe it was and simply ceased to be.”

This paper shall deal with the formal aspects of the storytelling technique employed by Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-73 C.E.) in his Masnavī-yi Ma‘navī (henceforth Masnavī). I shall begin with the assumption that there is some kind of form to this work and shall try...