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Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Mu?ammad Balkhi, also known as Jalal ad-Din Mu?ammad Rumi, but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic jurist, theologian, and mystic. Rumi is a descriptive name meaning “the Roman” since he lived most of his life in an area called Rum because it was once ruled by the Byzantine Empire.

According to tradition, Rumi was born in Balkh, Bactria, in contemporary Afghanistan, which at that time was part of the Persian Empire, and was the hometown of his father’s family. Scholars, however, believe that he was born in Wakhsh, a small town located at the river Wakhsh in what is now Tajikistan. Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there. Both these cities were at the time included in the Greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of historical Persia, and were part of the Khwarezmian Empire.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalal_ad-Din_Muhammad_Rumi