KONYA - A number of Iranian tourists have visited the Mevlana Museum in central province of Konya during ceremonies held to mark the 730th anniversary of Mevlana's reunion.
Museum officials told the A.A correspondent on Sunday that nearly two thousand Iranian tourists had visited the museum since the beginning of the ceremonies on December 10.
Meanwhile, Japanese, Korean and Italian tourists have also showed great interest in the ceremonies.
Jalal ud-din Rumi known as Mevlana, devoted himself to the pursuit of Sufi mysticism, in which field he is justly regarded as a supreme master. He was the spiritual founder of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes. His most important work, composed during the last ten years of his life, was the Mathnawi-i Manawi. Second to this is the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz, a collection of lyrics (ghazals) dedicated to his spiritual guide Shamsuddin of Tabriz. His main subject is the relationship between man and God on the one hand, and between man and man, on the other. He apparently believed in Pantheism and portrayed the various stages of man's evolution in his journey towards the Ultimate.
(UK) 14.12.2003