Rumi's Masnavi is the unrivalled masterpiece of Sufi spirituality. It guides the student on the path to union with God by way of fables and sayings that are "easier than easy to the ignorant, but harder than hard to the wise".

Rumi is respected throughout the Islamic world and his influence crosses national and sectarian boundaries. Today, in translation, he is in fact America's favourite poet.

The Masnavi, originally written in Persia verse, is filled with references to the Koran and Islamic history and is notoriously difficult to translate. Reynold Nicholson (Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic, University of Cambridge) has delivered this most precise and authoritative translation, rendering the meaning as clear as one can expect of a mystical work.