Kingdom of Joy: Tales of Rumi - Tapa blanda

'....Thanks to the cooperation of a scholar who retells the most famous of Rumi's stories, and a young lady painter from the Indo-Pakistani tradition of minature painting, Rumi's thought can be enjoyed by everyone, readers of different ages and backgrounds, and I hope it will form a useful introduction to the work of the most elequent and most lovable, the wisest and the most humane writer in the Islamic Sufi tradition........ ' Taken from the preface written by a most profilic academic, the late Professor Annemarie Schimmel, 2002. --Preface of book

Hundreds of years after his death, the stories of Rumi continue to enchant the old and the young. Whether he was writing about frogs and parrots or sultans and scoundrels, the charm and attraction inherent in the stories point to a timeless element that draws on the sacred, the source constantly being the Qur`an. The stories of Rumi are simply commentaries on verses or themes found in the Holy Book, for a couple of verses in the Mathnawi or a simple story about a sleeping bear or a bald parrot can not only entertain and amuse but also educate and transform the soul. Therein lies the magic of Rumi.