Page 335 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1636 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. • ROBERT FROST (1874–1963)

The oil crisis of 1973 had a severe impact on the
American industry. Its synthetic rubber production was Rumi
hit by the quadrupling of the price of its raw material, oil. (1207–1273)
Radial tires (which can only be made from natural rub- Persian poet
ber) reduced fuel consumption of automobiles and sales
soared in the 1970s, but then Firestone’s radial tires were alal ad-Din ar-Rumi known as Mevlana (turkicized
shown to be unsafe and had to be recalled. In the 1980s, Jform of the Arabic word Mawlana, which means “our
all the plants in Akron were closed, Goodrich and master”), is one of the best-known figures of Muslim spir-
Uniroyal merged their tire businesses and then sold the ituality and devotional poetry worldwide. He established
joint operation to Michelin, and Firestone was taken over his own Sufi order, known as the Mevlevi in honor of its
by the Japanese firm Bridgestone. Since the oil crises of founder.The Mevlevi Sufis (popularly known in the West
the 1970s, natural and synthetic rubber have settled as the Whirling Dervishes) are based in Konya, Turkey,
into an uneasy but enduring co-existence. It now appears where R¯um¯ı lies buried.The order is distinguished by its
unlikely either form will disappear completely.Whatever special rites, which include music and a special whirling
form it takes, rubber will continue to be important as dance, designed to foster intense contemplation of the
long as we use automobiles, take flights, or just walk Divine Beloved (God).
along the road. Rumi was born in Balkh in present-day Afghanistan.
His father was a well-known jurist, preacher, and Sufi
Peter Morris
mystic who combined a knowledge of both the exoteric
sciences, such as law and hadith studies, and the esoteric
sciences, such as the study of spiritual techniques and
Further Reading practices. When Rumi was about twelve years old, his
Barlow, C. (1978). The natural rubber industry: Its development, technol- family fled Balkh in fear of the Mongols, who were draw-
ogy and economy in Malaysia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Blackford, M. G., & Kerr, K. A. (1996). BFGoodrich:Tradition and trans- ing close to the city.They traveled through a considerable
formation, 1870–1995. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. part of the Muslim world on their way to Mecca, and after
Coates,A. (1987). The commerce in rubber:The first 250 years. New York:
Oxford University Press. performing the pilgrimage there, settled in Konya, where
Dean, W. (1987). Brazil and the struggle for rubber: A study in environ- they were received warmly by the Seljuk ruler.
mental history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Rumi was given a sound Islamic education that
French, M. J. (1990). The U. S. tire industry: A history. Boston: Twayne.
Herbert,V., & Bisio,A. (1985). Synthetic rubber:A project that had to suc- stressed knowledge of the Quran, hadith (sayings of the
ceed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Prophet Muhammad), Arabic grammar, religious law,
Korman, R. (2002). The Goodyear story: An inventor’s obsession and the
struggle for a rubber monopoly. San Francisco: Encounter Books. principles of jurisprudence, Quran commentary, history,
Love, S. (1999). Wheels of fortune: The story of rubber in Akron. Akron, logic, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, among
OH: University of Akron Press. other subjects. From his father he also became ac-
Morris, P. J. T. (1989). The American synthetic rubber research program.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. quainted with the practices and techniques of Sufism,
Morris, P. J.T. (1994). Synthetic rubber: Autarky and War. In S.T. I. Moss- albeit informally.
man & P. J.T. Morris (Eds.), The development of plastics (pp. 54–69).
Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry. In 1231, when Rumi was twenty-four, his father
Schidrowitz, P., & Dawson,T. R. (1952). The history of the rubber indus- passed away. Rumi, already recognized for his consider-
try. Cambridge, UK: Heffers, for the Institution of the Rubber able learning, inherited his father’s position as professor
Industry.
Slack, C. (2002). Noble obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock and in religious studies and preacher to the people of Konya.
the race to unlock the greatest industrial secret of the nineteenth century. In 1232 the Sufi Burhan al-Din Tirmidhi who had been
New York: Hyperion.
Weinstein, B. (1983). The Amazon rubber boom, 1850–1920. Stanford, a disciple of R¯um¯ı’s father, moved to Konya, and Rumi
CA: Stanford University Press. began to receive formal training in the mystical ways of