Portrait of Rumi by Hossein Behzad

What it is

This is a drawing made in 1957 by the Iranian artist Hossein Behzad, showing an imagined likeness of Jalal al-Din Rumi. It depicts a bearded man in a white turban and long robe, seated cross-legged with a closed book on his knee and another book on the floor beside him.

Why it matters

No portrait of Rumi was made during his own lifetime, so images like this one are later artists' imaginings of how he might have looked. This drawing shows how twentieth-century Iranian artists honored Rumi as a towering figure in Persian literature, using books as symbols of his identity as a poet and scholar.

Look closer

• What details in the drawing suggest that this man is a scholar or poet?
• Since no image of Rumi survives from his own time, what choices did the artist have to make?
• How might this portrait shape the way people imagine Rumi today?