Review Your Rumi

The poet, Sufi mystic, theologian and jurist known as Rumi will be the subject of the three-week study group at the Vineyard Haven Public Library starting Tuesday.

Jim Norton, aided by special guest Demaris Wehr, will lead the series Conversations about Jalal al-Din Rumi, Persian Poet.

The workshop will study Rumi as a familiar outstanding religious figure among world religions, exploring the Persian and Muslim contexts of his work.

The general theme of Rumi’s thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially that of the concept of union with his beloved (god or lover) from which he has been cut off, and his longing and desire to restore it.

The Christian Science Monitor recently noted that the 13th century man Rumi has become the best-selling poet in the United States.

The group will meet weekly at 7 p.m. from Tuesday, Jan. 4 through Jan. 18.