A seventeenthcentury illustration for Rumis epic poem Masnavi. Rumi is often called a mystic a saint an enlightened man....
A seventeenth-century illustration for Rumi’s epic poem “Masnavi.” Photograph from the Walters Art Museum as used by The New Yorker.

This article expands on what Dr. al-Tikriti described of the rebranding trend of Rumi. The author, Rozina Ali, explains:

“He is typically referred to as a mystic, a saint, a Sufi, an enlightened man. Curiously, however, although he was a lifelong scholar of the Koran and Islam, he is less frequently described as a Muslim.”

Ali discusses Rumi’s popularity in pop culture, from Cold Play to Westernized translations of his poetry, and how we can trace this to prim, proper, and ethnocentric Victoriana.

She also provides names of authors who produce more legtimate (scholarly) translations.