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Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, has remarked that after nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world. This new collection of Rumi stories fills that need.

This fresh prose translation of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi, explores the hidden spiritual aspects of everyday experience. Rumi transforms the seemingly mundane events of daily life into profound Sufi teaching moments. These prose gems open the mystical portal to the world of the ancient mystic.

These stories include well-known and popular tales such as Angel of Death, The Sufi and His Cheating Wife, Moses and the Shepherd, The Chickpeas, and Chinese and Greek Painters as well as the less commonly quoted parables: The Basket Weaver, Mud Eaters, and A Sackful of Pebbles.

Rumi's voice alternates between playful and authoritative, whether he is telling stories of ordinary lives or inviting the discerning reader to higher levels of introspection and attainment of transcendent values. Mafi's translations delicately reflect the nuances of Rumi's poetry while retaining the positive tone of all of Rumi's writings, as well as the sense of suspense and drama that mark the essence of the Masnavi.

Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (1207-1273), or simply Rumi, was a thirteenth-century poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic. He was perhaps the finest Persian poet of all time and a great influence on Muslim writing and culture. While he led a fairly ordinary life until the age of thirty-five, after meeting and subsequently losing his great friend and Sufi teacher Shams, Rumi was moved to emit his soul through poetry. With Shams influence, he became filled with the love of God.

Rumi is considered today to be a love poet and many translations of his work have become mere love poems. Though love is an overwhelming part of Rumi's work, the love he speaks of is a higher love for God, not for humans. Nevertheless, the imagery and language he uses has proved to be universal and enduring and he continues to be one of the best-selling poets in America.

Maryam Mafi was born and raised in Iran. She graduated from Tufts University in 1977 and while reading for her master's degree in international communications at American and Georgetown Universities she began translating Persian literature and has been doing so ever since. Maryam lives in London.

Narguess Farzad is a senior fellow in Persian studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.