was born in Balkh, Persia and died in Konya, Turkey. R.A. Nicholson called him “the greatest mystical poet of any age.” His spiritual and literary influence is so pervasive in the East that his name is often prefaced by the reverential term “Maulana” (our Master). He composed over 70,000 verses of poetry of divine love and ecstatic illumination. He was a pillar of Islam and a sober scholar until he met a wandering wild dervish – Shams of Tabriz and was transformed into an enraptured lover of God; traveling from knowledge to vision.