Rumi, Jalal Al-Din: - Jalal al-Din Rumi was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language. His experience of love, longing, and loss turned Rumi into the greatest poet of the 13th Century. His didactic epic "Spiritual Couplets", widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world. Rumi was a universalist in that his poetry crossed religious sectors and faiths due to its great wisdom, clarity, and love. His poems are translated and widely read around the world still today. Many claim that his poetry deepened their own spiritual practices, in addition to serving as a bridge from religion to culture to psychology.