The Masnavi
Six books of rhymed couplets open with a reed torn from the reed bed, crying for the marsh it was cut from, and proceed by tales that break off into other tales — a grammarian in a sinking boat, an elephant felt in the dark by men who have never seen one, a lover at a locked door. Rumi dictates the whole across the last decade of his life to a disciple who writes it down. Persians call it the Qur'an in the Persian tongue, and it is the central narrative work of Sufism.
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Lineage
- influenced by ↑ The Conference of the Birds
- shares sources with ↑ Kalila and Dimna
Attributes
Genre
Plot structure
Symbol / motif
Conflict
Mode / tone
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 51% · 11 shared
- 51% · 11 shared
- 46% · 9 shared
- 45% · 11 shared
- 43% · 11 shared
- 43% · 10 shared