Rumi is a well known poet and scholar.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī , also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī , Mevlânâ / Mawlānā ( مولانا , `` our master '' ) , Mevlevî / Mawlawī ( مولوی , `` my master '' ) , and more popularly simply as Rumi ( 30 September 1207 -- 17 December 1273 ) , was a 13th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet , jurist , Islamic scholar , theologian , and Sufi mystic . Rumi has been described as the `` most popular poet '' and the `` best selling poet '' in the United States . His poetry has influenced Persian literature , but also Turkish , Ottoman Turkish , Azerbaijani , as well as the literature of some other Turkic , Iranian , and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai , Urdu , Pashto , and Bengali .