Escaneado con Cor, MNeIse yuUr eH ono these ancient cultures produced. From) the translators Desk Goleman Barks Talks About the Time (amie) Introducing Coleman Barks (b. 1937) Born in Chatta- 4 nooga, Tennessee, Barks is a poet and translator who has earne' great praise and a vast readership for his translations of the thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi. Barks taught poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. Mystical Poetry in the Persian Tradition From the twelfth to the fourteenth century, the Persian-speaking culture in the Middle East produced several world-class poets: Attar, Sanai, Hafiz, and Rumi. They were all mystics as well as poets. Mystic is an imprecise term, meaning different things to ve different people. I use it to mean someone who has a way of This seeing, a way of being, within which he or she experiences the sho interconnectedness of all beings—and a joy and a longing inher- dan ent in that experience. fe Persian mystics explored many metaphors for their core experi- i ence: a moth dying in the flame, a drop of rain falling into the sea, vo the sense of individual boundaries dissolving into something an larger. Mystical experience is real, even if difficult to define. But spi the depth of our love for a person is also difficult—some would [Ce say impossible—to express, and surely that is the most real thing in our lives. Molecules and Galaxies The poet Rumi, one of the writers in this unit, spoke his poems spontaneously as part of his work within a spiritual community known as the “Whirling Dervishes.” A dervish is a “holy one,” and the whirling dervishes practiced a type of twirling, hypnotic dance as a path to enlightenment. Rumi was the original whirling der- vish. One day he heard music coming from a shop where craftsmen were pounding gold bars into gold Jeaf. He heard inside the hammering such beautythat he began turning 8 g. He would say late: e was 4 ee ee |d say later that he was turning with the In contemporary America, Gi ry Z ‘a, Grateful Dead concerts used t in wi 7 7 : is fo begin wi eaten turners in the audience. We've seen children, and ee : em, * raphe to make the whole horizon turn until they fall. The dervish ‘ance, like the children’s spin, is abandon and discipline at once. Rumi’s Community Rumi's “work” within the dervi ity w. a corto open thc ear. Member ofthis community tude txts They tended gardens and orchards. They satin silence, and they sat ina conversational practice sort of like the Quaker circles, where everyone is encouraged to speak openly. They played music and told stories. They lis- tened to poetry and watched animals, whose behavior was a kind of scrip- ture that they read for signs. Rumi’s community was not a monastery. Its members had families, and each knew a craft, whose performance in the community was an essential part of the spiritual process. mmunity were Sufis, mem- m. Yet I prefer not to use the those systems of beliefs that , let’s call the Sufis he Heart Rumi and his dervish coi ystical sect of Islam known as Sufis II, because it leads us into -isms, f religious bickering and wars. Instea Opening tl bers of am! term Sufism at al are the source of people of the heart. writers, knew that the most important thing shat we call it: opening the Rumi, like other mystical ™ happens inwardly, and that it does not matter w! ; the thin. That inner opening 1S plained. But it can also be heart, being born again, finding the kingdom wi the same, and it can only be lived, not ex] ‘ approached with words, and that is why [love the mystical poets. Oia wana Reading for Information and Insight Use ading of the unit intro tions to guide your re 5 Focus Questions As you use what you learn to answer © Why do you think that the murabi playe development of 6-13. civilization? ms for the following terms and ques- duction on pages d such an important (Go Qnii vuthor For: An online v Visi ‘Web Code: For: More abot Barks read this introduction, these questions: legal code of Ham- role in theHistorical Background Ancient Middle East: Origins About 5,000 years ago, Several major civilizations developed in the fertile river Valleys of southwest Asia. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in modern Iraq, was one of these sites. Mesopotamia (mes' pe ta’ mé e), the Greek name for this region, means “the land between two rivers.” (See the map on Page 7.) Even today, scholars disagree about the identity of the people or peoples who spoke and wrote Sumerian and who lived in ancient Sumer (s60' mer). In the succession of civilizations that arose in this region, however, theirs was the ver, thei first, and it influenced the Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations that followed. As the founders of M “firsts” to their credit: t] (kya ne’ 9 form’), sixty that led to circle; the first lesopotamian civilization, the Sumerians have many he region’s earliest system of writing—cuneiform or wedge-shaped, characters; a number system based on Our 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, and 360-degree wheeled vehicles; and the earliest city-states. The Babylonians One of the greatest Mesopotamian kings was Sargon (reigned c. 2334-2279 B.C.). His new capital city of Agade, located near the site of Babylon, was north of Sumer—the northward shift of power in Mesopotamia became a tre nd. Agade contributed its name to the region where Sargon lived, Akkad (ak ac), and to the language he spoke, Akkadian (@ ka’ dé on). A Semitic language related to modern Hebrew and Arabic, Akkadian in its various forms became the tongue of the new northern centers of power, Babylon and Assur. Those who spoke Semitic languages, the Semites, were nomadic peoples who had migrated to Mesopotamia from the Arabian peninsula. One such group, the Amorites, founded the village of Babylon on the Euphrates River (c. 2000 B.c.). Not until the reign of Hammurabi (c. 1792-1750 B.C.), however, did Babylon come into its own as the capital of a great empire. (See the map on page 7.) Hammurabi’s famous legal code was an important step in the development of civilization. Engraved on a stone slab, this code contains 282 laws covering all aspects of daily life. i oa i Nile” At the time cient Egypt: “The gift of the ee Santen civilization was developing along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Egyptian civilization ; ee Riche the banks of the Nile in northeastern Africa. aro | Phe Creek historian Herodotus called EgyptLIBYAN DESERT Timbuktu «G20 AFRICA Hammurabi's Empire c. 1792-1750 B.C. ( -gyptian Empire c. 1450 B.C. ersian Empire c. 500 B.C. — Kingdom of Mali c. A.D. 1200-1450 9 500 1000 Miles ] 0 509 1000 Kilometers * ee \ “the gift of the Nile,” and he was right. Every July the river would flood, replenishing farmland along its banks with moisture and rich silt. In nv ddition to fertile land, the river provided a watery highway for travel and trade. It was also a source of fish. Without the river’s life-giving bounty, Egypt would be as barren as the deserts that surround it. “st first, the villages along the Nile were divided into two countries Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north. Around 2900 B.C., a ruler joined the two kingdoms to create a single realm. The history of the pharaohs (far 62), or rulers, who then led Egypt for almost two thousand years can be divided into the following periods: Early Dynastic Period (c. 2925-c. 2575 B.C.), the Old Kingdom (c. 2575-c. 2130 B.C.), the Middle Kingdom (1 938-c. 1600 B.C.), and the New Kingdom (c. 1540-1075 BC). In the periods between these eras, Egypt was prey to invasions and civil wars, By and large, however, the ‘geographical barriers of desert and sea protected Egypt from its neighbors and made for a long-lived, stable, and srvative civilization. wou reuny v0 Ccut human figures, Unlike the Mesopotamian kings, who were eee that the the pharaohs were looked upon as gods. (it is ie art human and part legendary King Gilgamesh of Uruk was viewed a: Fim than in the god.) At no time was their godlike power more app ane Old Kingdom. (See Art in the Historical Contex’ , pag i used Egyptian Society and Religion Not only was the hae a pharaoh’s remains a symbol of the afterlife, it was al ai ere the priests, Egyptian society. At the top was the pharaoh. Beneath ann W 5 who devised the system of writing called hieroglyphics (hr ar 6 g 7 5 Pictures or symbols representing words, syllables, or sounds. The nobles, the peasants and slaves. Religion was a key aspect of ancient Egyptian culture. Many of the gods that Egyptians worshiped were associated with forces of nature. The god of the Nile River, for example, was Osiris Os Tris), whose death and rebirth ise and fall, Osiris was al: So the god of the Leven eu Con C