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Notes on Contributors  Notes on Contributors Alberto Fabio Ambrosio read philosophy and theology at the Domi- ni can College in Bologna; he then undertook studies in Turkish language and civilization at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg. In 2002 he com - pleted an MA in Turkish, the subject of his thesis being the ritual of initia- tion into the Bektashi Order. In the same year he completed a second MA in theology with a paper on Hinduism and Sufism (the case of Bistami). In 2007 he finished his doctoral studies in modern history at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) on the subject of doctrines and practices of the Whirl - ing Dervishes in the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth century. His publications on Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes include: Les derviches tourneurs. Doctrine, histoire et pratiques (2006) with Eve Pierunek and Thierry Zarcone, somes articles on Ismail Rusuhi Ankaravi, in Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée (2006), as well as contributions to the Journal of the History of Sufism. An ordained Catholic priest, he is currently pursuing his research on Sufi culture and the Rumi’s order of the Whirling Dervishes in Istanbul where he has been residing since 2003. Mojdeh Bayat was born in Tehran, Iran, and has been living in the United States since mid-1980s. She is currently Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Studies at De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois. She has published two books, entitled Tales from the Land of Sufis (Shambhala 1994), Under the Sufi’s Cloak (Writers’ Inc. International 1995). Tales from the Land of Sufis, co-authored with Ali Jamnia, is a collection of the best- loved Sufi tales from Persian literature and lore. The tales are retold from the celebrated works of poets who were also spiritual masters, including Rumi and cAttar. This work has been translated into five European lan - guages as well as Persian, and Turkish. Under the Sufi’s Cloak, also co- authored with Ali Jamnia, is a collection of stories about the Sufi master Abu Sa’id ibn Abi’l-Khayr (d. 1049). notes on contributors 177 Coleman Barks was educated at the University of North Carolina (BA 1959; PhD 1968) and at the University of California, Berkeley (MA 1961), and since 1977 has collaborated with various scholars of the Persian language (most notably, John Moyne) to bring over into American free verse the poetry of the Rumi. This work has resulted in twenty-one volumes, including the bestselling Essential Rumi in 1995, two appear - ances on Bill Moyers’ PBS specials, and inclusion in the prestigious Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. The Rumi translations have sold over a million copies. It is claimed that over the last fifteen years Rumi has been the most-read poet in the United States. In the fall of 2010 HarperOne will publish Rumi: The Big Red Book, which will collect all of the work on Rumi’s ghazals and rubaciyyat that he has done over the past thirty-three years. Dr Barks taught American Literature and Creative Writing at various universities for thirty-four years, and has published seven volumes of his own poetry. The University of Georgia Press published Winter Sky: Poems 1968–2008 in September of 2008. In 2004 he received the Juliet Hollister Award for his work in the interfaith area. In March 2005 the US State Department sent him to Afghanistan as the first visiting speaker there in twenty-five years. In May of 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tehran. In 2009 he was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. He is now retired Professor Emeritus at the Univer - sity of Georgia in Athens. He has two grown sons and four grandchildren, all of who live near him in Athens, Georgia. Robert Abdul Hayy Darr studied Sufism in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980s while working with Afghan refugees. During those years he befriended a number of Sufis of the region, including the great Afghan poet Khalilullah Khalili. Darr spent the following decades studying tradi - tional Sufism along with specialized disciplines such as abjad (Islamic num er o logy). He has been the student of the Afghan Sufi, Raz Moham - med Zaray for twenty years. He also studied miniature painting through the 1990s with Afghanistan’s great miniaturist, Homayon Etemadi (died 2007). Darr is the author of The Spy of the Heart (2006), an autobio - graphical account of his spiritual quest, and several books on Islamic mysticism (Sufism), including a translation of the Quatrains of Khalilullah Khalili (1989), and a translation of The Garden of Mystery: the Gulshani-i raz of Mahmud Shabistari (2007)..
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