Muslim literature’s influence in the US has grown stronger since the Sept. 11 attacks

by JONATHAN CURIEL

Thanks to the faith of Rumi’s U.S. fans, his books have sold more than 500,000 copies in the past 10 years. Rumi calendars, Rumi CDs, Rumi posters, Rumi T-shirts, even Rumi coffee mugs have also found a market in the United States.

Madonna, Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn, Martin Sheen, Debra Winger and Rosa Parks are among the big names who have publicly proclaimed Rumi’s greatness as a poet.
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Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Washington Irving — not to mention Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hans Christian Andersen, Lord Byron and Voltaire — all incorporated motifs from “A Thousand and One Nights” into their work, according to Robert Irwin, a retired professor of medieval history at the University of St. Andrews.

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