Recent Publications – 2010
Mawlana Rumi Review, Vol. 1, 2010
A publication of the Rumi Institute, Near East University, Cyprus, and the Rumi Studies Group at the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies, Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, in association with Archetype Books. ISSN 2041-3357, ISBN 972-1-901383-38-6
An awesome ancient light is Love – to those
with eyes, though lumpen folk just see form, lust.
The Mawlana Rumi Review is a newly launched academic review devoted to the life, thought, poetry and legacy of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d.1273), the incomparable author of the Mathnawi and the Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz.
It is the first journal in any language dedicated to Rumi's legacy and thought, and establishes a platform for the publication of modern scholarship in this field. It is jointly produced by the Rumi Institute (Near East University, Cyprus) and the Rumi Studies Group at the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies, University of Exeter. The list of editors and the Review's advisory council underlines the breadth of collaboration involved. The first volume has contributions from scholars in nine or more countries.
The Review promises to engage with its subject in the widest way. At this time English can serve as a common language of learning, allowing contributions from scholars in Iran and Turkey to appear beside those from people working in the Russia and the USA, and with those of a Mevlevi shaykh. In the English language world as such, a startling development came about in the last part of the Twentieth century through modern American poets such as Robert Bly and Coleman Barks. Seeking to translate Rumi's ideas into contemporary idiom, they touched something real in a lot of people, to the extent that Rumi has been the best-selling poet in English in the United States for the last two decades. This aspect of the heritage of Mawlana is also represented in the Review.
You can read here (www.jadidonline.com) the comments of the editor, Dr Leonard Lewisohn, at the launch of the Mawlana Rumi Review at the British Library on May 12, 2010.
From just one single thought, a crowd has filled the plain
Like sluices opened when the the floodgates are let drain.
That thought the mass of men think insignificant,
But puny thought rushed through the world and ate it.
For more information see www.mawlanarumireview.com and Archetype Books to subscribe online.
Ishraq – Islamic Philosophy Yearbook, No. 1, 2010
Co-published by the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Iranian Institute of Philosophy. ISBN 978-5-9551-0402-7.
The first issue of the Islamic Philosophy Yearbook, Ishraq ("Illumination"), contains more than 30 articles in Russian and English, devoted to a wide range of issues current in Islamic philosophical studies, written by leading Russian and foreign scholars. This is the first periodical of its kind in Russia.
In the editor's forward, Yanis Eshots of the University of Latvia writes that the yearbook has three goals – to encourage interest in Islamic philosophy and philosophical aspects of Islamic culture among Russian, English and French-speaking audiences; to provoke discussions among scholars on important issues of Islamic philosophy; and to call attention to major research projects in Russia, Iran, and other countries.
The papers are divided into six main sections, entitled Dialogue of Philosphies, Ontology and Epistemology, Ethics and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion and Kalam, Islamic Mysticism, Philosophy of Art. There are contribution in all these sections by people well-known to readers of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Journal, some of whom are also part of the editorial board.
The yearbook was published with financial support from the Islamic Cultural and Research Foundation, Moscow. The Foundation was established in 2007 and encourages the translation of scholarly literature from eastern and western languages into Russian, and cooperates with academic centers in Russian and beyond.
One could wish that the papers of the Russian scholars were translated into English, and those of the "foreign" scholars into Russian.