The Face of A Dervish

Rumi / December 2, 2023 The Face of A Dervish Before I met Hayat Nur Artiran, I had only had a raw understanding of what female selfhood may look like, a notion I have been attempting to refine in my writings over many years. Here, at the Mevlevi Sufi lodge in Istanbul, I received a […]

Visiting Rumi’s Tomb In Konya

Rumi / November 23, 2023 Visiting Rumi’s Tomb In Konya At dusk, the shaft of light striking Rumi’s tomb is emollient as pale jade. It has been a long, hot day in Konya, I’ve been writing in a café-terrace overlooking the famed white and turquoise structure of the tomb-museum complex. I sip my tea slowly, […]

Rumi And The Clock Of Shams Tabrizi

Rumi / November 22, 2023 Rumi And The Clock Of Shams Tabrizi A tree in the vicinity of Rumi’s tomb has me transfixed. It isn’t the tree, actually, it is the force of attraction between tree-branch and sun-ray that seems to lift the tree off the ground and swirl it in sunshine, casting filigreed shadows on the […]

Rumi, Adab, And the Beauty Of Boundaries

Featured / November 8, 2023 Rumi, Adab, And The Beauty Of Boundaries I was so excited to meet Azra Bayru Kumcuoğlu, Rumi’s granddaughter (23rd generation) for breakfast on my latest visit to Istanbul— that I wore my pearls early in the morning and popped into a salon across from Boğaziçi University campus where I had […]