The day-by-day increasing habit of reading Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi’s masterpiece Mathnawi around the world has began to emerge between famous people recently. The Colombian singer, Shakira, began to read Mevlana’s Mathnawi with the suggestion of her psychotherapist, with whom she has made appointments because of the enduring nightmares she had. While she is saying that her nightmares have totally gone out when she finished the first cover of the book, she doesn’t hesitate to mention this in her various interviews. Shakira says that after she has begun to read Mathnawi, the definitions of love and affection in her inside have changed and her resentment has decreased.

It is interesting that when Mathnawi-reading rates have been increasing in the west, unfortunately in our country it is still at minimum degree. According to a questionnaire which is made in Konya – the city where Mevlana’s mausoleum exists- only forty five of every one hundred people have read Mathnawi even if just a bit. The number of the ones who have read the whole of the book is not even ten percent.

Some explain this situation like this: “We have brought Mathnawi inside of our lives this is true that we don’t read it but most of the stories which we mention in our conversations are from Mathnawi. Yes, it is true in a way, but it has also two risks. Firstly, the story in Mathnawi might be changed from person to person; secondly people might not get the idea that these stories are from Mathnawi and catch the soul of it. Otherwise, this is a great situation.

(Thanks to Merve Bozkır for translation)

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