🧵 Tonight is ‘Shab-i Yaldā,’ the longest and darkest night of the year!

Iranic peoples spend the night in celebration - but why is the winter solstice important to them? (1/7) Also known as ‘Shab-i Chilla,’ Yaldā falls on December 21st, which is the end of the Iranian month ‘Āzār.’

Iranic peoples gather, often eating pomegranates, watermelons, and nuts, sitting under a heated table called a ‘kursī.’ (2/7)

Persian is a gender-neutral language.

In place of he or she, there is a neutral “ū” (او).

Persians say “humankind” (bashariyat, بشریت) not “mankind.”

When speaking of men and women, Persian speakers mention women first. (1/4) Instead of:

“Husband and wife,”
“Men and women,” or
“Brothers and sisters.”

Persians say:

“Wife and husband” (zan o shawhar)
“Women and men” (zan o mard) and
“Sisters and brothers” (khāhar or barādar). (2/4)

Happy #Nowruz!

Did you know that March 20th marks the start of Spring and a new year for millions around the world?

Click to see how this ancient Iranic celebration is observed ⬇️ ‘Nowruz’ - from the Persian words ‘now’ (new) and ‘ruz’ (day) - is an ancient festival celebrating the end of winter and start of warmer spring days.

🧵 Tomorrow night is ‘Shab-e Yaldā,’ the longest and darkest night of the year!

Iranic peoples spend the night in celebration - but why is the winter solstice important to them? (1/8) Also known as Shab-e Chilla, Yaldā falls on December 21st, which is the end of the Iranian month ‘Āzar.’

Iranic peoples get together and stay up all eating pomegranates and other foods while sitting under a heated table called a ‘kursī.’ (2/8)

Mawlānā Rūmī’s first encounter with Shams al-Dīn-i Tabrīzī.

Though he did not know it at the time, Rūmī’s meeting with the wandering mystic (qalandar) Shams al-Dīn would change his life and Islamic mysticism forever.

Mawlānā later wrote about it: (1/5) ‘I left the house, a drunk approached,
in his eyes I saw hundreds of gardens and nests*.’

(*The Sufi is a divine bird trapped in the world, the spiritual mentor is the nest)

(az khāna burūn raftam mastīm bih pesh āmad
dar har nazarash muzmar-i ṣad gulshan o kāshāna) (2/5)

🧵 Nowruz Mubarak! Did you know that today marks the start of Spring and a new year for millions of people across dozens of countries? Read more to see how this ancient Iranic celebration is observed across the world ⬇️ Nowruz comes from the Persian words 'now' (new) and 'rūz' (day). It has been indigenously celebrated for millennia in Asia and Europe (pictured) and is now observed worldwide by various diaspora communities.

How did the poems we read today reach us? A thread 🧵 on manuscripts and textual criticism: (1/11) Before the printing press, divans (collections of poetry) were written and copied by hand, which invariably lead to copy errors. Copyists also removed poems they doubted the authenticity of, which was determined by the 'feel' of the poem, producing variable results. (2/11)

Thread: Tonight is the longest and darkest night of the year. Iranic peoples and neighboring groups call it 'Shab-e Yaldā' and spend the night in celebration, but why is the winter solstice important to them? (1/7) Shab-e Yaldā or Shab-e Chelleh is the twentieth/twenty-first of December, or the end of the ninth month (Azar) in the Iranian calendar. Iranic peoples stay up eating pomegranates, watermelons, nuts, sitting under a heated table called a 'korsī.' (2/7)

This quote isn't by Rumi, it's from Hans J. Hillerbrand's 'Encyclopedia of Protestantism,' Volume II, page 403.

https://twitter.com/Rumi_Quote/status/1322521437748502530

Many Muslims innocently seek out Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and end up dangerously misguided by these quotes. There's nothing wrong with getting wisdom from a follower of any faith, but we must also be careful that it doesn't contradict our Islamic teachings.

Did Rumi really write, “Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system.”? A thread on the whitewashing and secularizing of Sufi poetry. (1/17) One of the most common quotes used to claim that Rumi wasn’t a Muslim comes from page 32 of Coleman Bark’s ‘The Essential Rumi’: (2/17)

Thread: Rumi Vodka, an offensive commercialization: Occasionally, I see Moulana Rumi's name plastered somewhere it doesn't belong, like this rosewater brand, or my local kebab place. I don't like it, but it also doesn't bug me as much as the many renderings masquerading as translations.

Thread: The Orientalizing of Moulana Rumi

Many of you may be familiar with the 'Rumi quotes' that circulate the internet. What if I told you the vast majority of them are fake and they are part of a project to secularize Rumi? This isn't a whatsapp conspiracy. Take this quote, commonly attributed to Moulana Rumi: