In 1976, few people had heard of Jelaluddin Rumi. Yet, in a stellar leap that no one could have predicted, this 13th-century Islamic theologian would soon become America's best-selling poet.
From the author's first-hand storytelling, interviews, recorded talks, and archival photographs, Rumi Comes to America describes the generational yearning, fortuitous events, spiritual mishaps, and everyday miracles that propelled Rumi's ancient mystical tradition to take root in America.
The story focuses on a group of young seekers, inspired by author Reshad Feild's spiritual journey to Turkey, who invite Süleyman Loras Dede, a sheikh of the Whirling Dervishes who spent most of his life cooking for the poor, to their modest duplex in Los Angeles.
Süleyman Dede was eighteen years old when he entered the dervish monastery in Konya, Turkey. But soon after, in 1926, all dervish activities, including the path of Rumi, were banned by Kemal Atatürk in his quest to create a secular, modern Turkey.
With dervish life underground, Dede's spiritual mastery would go mostly unnoticed in Turkey until age 74 when he set foot in Los Angeles - his culminating mission to bring Rumi to America.
The intimate recollections that form the core of this story reveal how today's Rumi phenomenon began as a series of fluke events that took root in the hearts of young people dedicated to Rumi's timeless message of mystical love.
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"Bruce, thank you for doing this good work!" Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi
"This book tells the story of one of the most important moments in America's recent religious and spiritual history using accounts of those involved and new translations of audio recordings from the time. Written with honesty, compassion, and understanding, it beautifully conveys the feeling of the place and period."
Mark Sedgwick, Departmentt of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, and author of Western Sufism: From the Abbasids to the New Age (Oxford University Press)
