Soil and Wisdom, Reflections on the Status of Architecture in Rumi's Mathnawi

Rumi was not an architect or architectural theorician. However in his Mathnawi، he dealt in architecture، explicitly or implicitly، intentionally or unintentionally. It can be seen in Mathnawi in diferrent levels: when he talks about the built environment in which he used to live; when he uses architecture elements and spaces as figure of speech; when he borrows an architectural metaphor in talking about the universe; when he proposes general theories which can be applied to architecture too; and finally when he uses architecture as a vehicle for the remembrance of God (zikr). In this article we try to understand the status of architecture in Mathnawi through the text itself. We do this in the mentioned levels، on these topics: the relation between architecture، art، and craft; architecture as revealed in Mathnawi language; the relation between architects and imagination; construction versus destruction; material and immaterial charachteristics of ideal space; and architecture as a vehicle for the remembrance of God.