Be sure to visit our commentators' websites for information
about their events
and our own
calendar of events
that might include them.

We have amassed
a richness of scholars for
“Rumi Returning.” 

AMBASSADOR AKBAR AHMED

Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington, DC

www.akbarahmed.org

COLEMAN BARKS
Professor (Retired) of Poetry and Creative Writing, University of Georgia, Major English Translator of Rumi
See www.colemanbarks.com for information on how to obtain his translations.

“Akbar Ahmed’s voice needs to be heard and his courage strengthened.”
          Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace Laureate

Akbar Ahmed’s new book, Journey Into Islam, published the summer of 2007 by the Brookings Institution, has become the read  for those concerned about issues of Islam, the West and globalization.  Dr. Ahmed is “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam,” according to the BBC.  He is a tireless proponent of interfaith education, dialogue and tolerance, perhaps best exemplified by his partnering at Muslim-Jewish conferences with Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl.    He has taught at Harvard, Cambridge, and Princeton. An interfaith evening honoring Ahmed was held at the National Cathedral following his being named Washington, DC Professor of the Year in 2004.

He is regularly interviewed on the BBC, CNN, CBC, and ARY TV, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Night Line.

Among numerous articles and books, he is author of Islam Under Siege and Islam Today. He has served as  High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain, and is a Trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue.  Akbar received the first Gandhi Center Fellowship of Peace Award.

“If Rumi is the most read poet in America today, Coleman Barks is in good part responsible.  His ear for the truly divine madness in Rumi’s poetry is truly remarkable.”
          Huston Smith, author, The World’s Religions

Coleman Barks is widely considered the premier English interpreter of Rumi and the reason Rumi is the most widely read poet in the U.S.  He is author of The Essential Rumi, the best selling volume of poetry in America, and 15 other books on Rumi.  He was the subject of a segment in Bill Moyers’ “Language of Life” series on PBS.  A renowned poet himself, with works such as Gourd Seed, Barks was later featured in Bill Moyers’ PBS poetry special “Fooling with Words.”

Read about and order Coleman Barks' latest book of exquisite poetry, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008 (published by University of Georgia Press).

COLEMAN BARKS

Professor of Creative Writing & Poetry, The University of Georgia (retired)

www.colemanbarks.com

ANDREW HARVEY

One of the world’s foremost scholars on Mysticism, Rumi author, lecturer

“In the case of Andrew Harvey, the light he sheds is like a meteor burst across the inner sky.” 
          Marianne Williamson, best-selling author and lecturer

Andrew Harvey was the youngest ever to be awarded a fellowship to All Soul’s College at Oxford, England’s highest academic honor.  He taught religious studies at Oxford and Cornell Universities.  He was the subject of the BBC documentary “The Making of a Modern Mystic” in 1993.  His over 20 books run the gamut of inter-cultural mysticism from Buddhism (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying) to Christianity (The Son of Man).  Dr. Harvey translates Rumi and has authored and written introductions for a number of books on his favorite mystic to include:  Light Upon Light, The Way of Passion, and Teachings of Rumi.  He lectures internationally on Rumi.

See the interview of "Rumi Returning" commentator Andrew Harvey in the May 2008 issue of The Sun Magazine, "The Ordinary Decency of the Heart." Look for his new book on spiritual activism: The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism.