Nonetheless, Rumi was fond of reading Persian poetry, especially that of Attar (killed in 1221 by the Mongol army) and Sana’ie (death 1131), and viewed himself continuing their tradition of spiritual poetry. This story, however, is not recorded in Rumi’s earliest biographies and appears in literature centuries later.
He also told the boy's father: "Time will come when the fiery words of this boy will kindle the hearts of lovers all over the world." If this conversation did take place, Attar's prophecy has indeed come true. There is a famous story that when Attar saw the young Jalaluddin, he was so impressed that he presented Rumi with a copy of Asrar Nameh ("The Book of Secrets") - a book Attar had composed during his own youth.
They traveled along the historical Silk Road and stopped at the city of Nishabour (now in northeast Iran) where the great Persian poet Attâr lived. About three hundred people were in Baha Valad's caravan. The second reason for his departure from Balkh was that Baha Valad, who often traveled to towns and villages close to Mongolia, must have sensed the growing power of Genghis Khan and his imminent threat to the unpopular Kharazm-Shah. The king’s followers may thus have intimidated Baha Valad. The king himself, although sometimes attended Baha Valad's sermons, apparently did not like the growing gathering around a pious, mystic preacher who kept distance from the court. Such criticisms surely hurt the feelings of powerful philosophers who were friends with Sultan Mohammad Kharazm-Shah, the ruler of the Persian kingdom in Balkh. Rumi himself inherited this notion from his father, for in one of his poems Rumi says that “the legs of argumentative logicians are made of wood,” implying that they only talk but cannot walk on the path of spiritual understanding. First, Baha Valad in his speeches often criticized the philosophers who based their understanding of truth merely on logical, verbal arguments. Two reasons are cited for this emigration. When Rumi was a young boy, his family decided to leave Balkh and emigrate westward. Who was Rumi, what is he saying in his works, why is he popular or even relevant to our generation? This article explores these questions. He was a thirteenth-century Persian poet, and people often do not know much about his life and thought. Despite the popularity of his poetry books, we will not see Rumi in book-signing events, lecture halls or television interviews. Against this backdrop of the marginalization of poetry in our life and society, it is heartening to see Rumi shelves in major bookstores with Coleman Barks’ The Essential Rumi as a best-selling book - a rare achievement for a poetry book. This is in sharp contrast to the significance of poetry in historical cultures where poetry had a practical role: Parents read poems to their children students memorized poems in schools, people recited poems as proverbs, and eminent poets were icons of wisdom and refined soul. Even the word poetry is sometimes (mis)used to imply not-serious ideas or irrelevant sayings. Poetry has become less and less present in our daily life and modern society.