Drawing on relevant postmodern theories, and exploring the link between the dynamics of eroticism and esotericism, this book establishes the esoteric significance of the bawdy tales in R?m?'s (d. 1273) "Mathnaw?," a masterpiece of medieval Perso-Islamic mystical literature.

Mahdi Tourage, Ph.D. (2005), University of Toronto, is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Islam at Colgate University, NY. His scholarly work has appeared in Iranian Studies and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.