The Forty Rules of Love

The Forty Rules of Love is a novel written by the Turkish author Elif Shafak,[1][2][3] Her interest in writing this book was influenced by the degree she received in Gender and Women’s Studies.[4] The book was published in March 2009.[5] It is about Maulana Jalal-Ud-Din, known as Rumi and his companion Shams Tabrizi.[6][7] This book explains how Shams transformed a scholar into a Sufi (mystic) through love.[8] More than 750,000 copies of this book were sold in Turkey and France.[9]

AuthorElif Shafak
CountryTurkey
LanguageEnglish
GenreLiterary Fiction
PublisherPenguin Books
Publication date
March 2009
Pages354
AwardsPrix ALEF* - Mention Spéciale Littérature Etrangère
ISBN9780141047188

Synopsis

"A novel within a novel, The Forty Rules of Love tells two parallel stories that mirror each other across two very different cultures and seven intervening centuries."[10] It starts when a housewife, Ella, gets a book called Sweet Blasphemy for an appraisal.[11] This book is about a thirteenth century poet, Rumi, and his spiritual teacher, Shams.[10] The book presents Shams's Forty Love Rules at different intervals.[12][13] Sweet Blasphemy was structured in a way to focus on the five elements of nature: Water, Air, Earth, Fire and Void. The chapters in each section revealed a story in line with the nature of each element.[14] The story presented in the novel is based on "love and spirituality that explains what it means to follow your heart".[15]

The letter "b"

Every chapter of the book starts with letter "b".[11] It is because the secret of Quran lies in Surah Al-Fatiha and its spirit is contained in the phrase Bismillah ir Rehman ir Rahim (In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and the most Merciful).[16] The first Arabic letter of the Bismillah has a dot below it that symbolizes the Universe as per Sufism thoughts.[17]

Reception

The Forty Rules of Love won Prix ALEF* - Mention Spéciale Littérature Etrangère.[18] It was also nominated for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.[18] On 5 November 2019 BBC News listed The Forty Rules of Love on its list of the 100 most influential novels. It was included in the "Love, Sex & Romance - February" category of Novels That Shaped Our World.[19][20]

References
  1. “Our Compass” Archived 2019-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, “International Herald Tribune”, November 27, 2013
  2. "Looking for God: Following the Path of Love","alif.id",October 13, 2019
  3. "Books of the week: From Stephen King's The Institute to Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, our picks","www.firstpost.com",September 16, 2019
  4. Safak, Elif; Chancy, Myriam J. A. (2003). "Migrations: A Meridians Interview with Elif Shafak". Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 4 (1): 55–85. doi:10.1353/mer.2004.0006. ISSN 1547-8424.
  5. “Analysis: The Forty Rules of Love” Archived 2019-08-03 at the Wayback Machine, “Analysis of Love”, 2010
  6. “The Forty Rules of Love – review” Archived 2016-09-13 at the Wayback Machine, “The Guardian”, December 5, 2014
  7. Rashid,Yamna."The Forty Rules of Love taught me What i know now, it's been my motivation ,inspiration and has helped me become a better person and it holds a speshal place in my heart","SHIFA KHAN(FUTURE BEST TIMESSELLER",June 1, 2017
  8. Kazim, Maisam. “Overview of Forty Rules of Love”, “Pamir Times”, March 3, 2018
  9. “Forty Rules Of Love by ELIF SHAFAK”, “lagazetteverdun”, November 29, 2016
  10. “Elif Shafak” Archived 2018-08-22 at the Wayback Machine, “Literary Festivals UK”,
  11. Alev Adil.“The Forty Rules of Love, By Elif Shafak” Archived 2019-08-03 at the Wayback Machine,“The Independent”, July 9, 2010
  12. “Sham’s of Tabriz’s 40 Rules of Love”, “The Vision Weekly”, November 4, 2011,
  13. Imran Ali Buth."The Forty Rules of Love","www.greaterkashmir.com",May 4, 2017
  14. Wahab, Momina (2020-07-26). "The Forty Rules of Love — Book Review". Medium. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
  15. "Five must-read books that help shape the way we think about the world","www.thenational.ae",June 7, 2019
  16. “Book Review: The forty Rules of Love by Elif Safak”, November 3, 2014
  17. Shweta. “Elif Shafak — Book Review of “40 Rules of Love”(Rumi & Shams of Tabriz )”, “Medium”, May 18, 2019
  18. “The Forty Rules of Love Reader’s Guide”, “Penguin Random House”,
  19. "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2019-11-10. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
  20. "The Novels That Shaped Our World: BBC reveals 100-strong list","www.thebookseller.com", November 5, 2019
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