L' Affame: Les Dits de Shams de Tabriz

English summary: "He wasn't me. I wasn't him. And yet he was entirely under my command. I was all in his blood." In the 13th century, while Persia was suffering under Mongols' assaults, the mystic Shams of Tabriz (1185-1248) set off in search of somebody who would be both his master and his disciple. After years of unsuccessful search, he reaches Konya in Anatolia and finds Mowlana, a man praised for his teaching and his majesty but a prisoner of his fame. Shams will be his liberator. Through their meeting and then their separation, Mowlana will become one of the most vertiginous poets of world literature, whom we know today as Rumi. In this striking and poetic book, author Nahal Tajadod uses Shams' own words - drawing from his Maqalat, a huge and rather disordered collection of sayings - and adds to it descriptions by the great medieval geographer Ibn Battuta and poetic episodes from the Persian poet Attar. A vivid and unique dive in the life of a remarkable man. Born in Tehran, Nahal Tajadod has lived in France since 1977. A specialist in Buddhism, Iranian Christianity and the poet Rumi, she has published several essays including Roumi le brule (2004), Sur les pas de Roumi (2006) and Les Porteurs de Lumiere (2008). She has also written several novels, Les Simples Pretextes du bonheur (2016), Elle joue (2012), and two autobiographical works, Passeport a l'iranienne (2007) and Debout sur la terre (2010). Jean-Claude Carriere is a writer, scriptwriter and director, world-famous for his stage and film adaptations of the world literary heritage: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Mahabharata, Dangerous Liaisons, The Return of Martin Guerre, The Valladolid debate, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Horseman on the Roof. Jean-Claude Carriere has collaborated with the greatest ones: Milos Forman, Luis Bunuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Peter Brook. French description: J'etais le seul a voir comment il fonctionnait. Je connaissais ses etats d'ame. Il n'etait pas moi. Je n'etais pas lui. Et pourtant, il etait tout entier sous mon ordre. J'etais tout entier dans son sang. Au XIIIe siecle, alors que la Perse est a feu et a sang sous les assauts des Mongols, le mystique Shams de Tabriz (1185-1248) part a la recherche d'un maitre qui saura etre son disciple. Apres des annees de quete infructueuse, il parvient a Konya en Anatolie et trouve Mowlana, cet homme vante pour son enseignement et sa majeste mais prisonnier de sa renommee. Shams sera son liberateur. Par leur rencontre puis leur separation, Mowlana deviendra l'un des poetes les plus vertigineux de la litterature mondiale, que nous connaissons aujourd'hui sous le nom de Roumi.