The Vineyards of Meram

Acrylic, watercolor & gold on passepartout cardboard, 50 x 130 cm, Meram Municipality Collection

The people of Konya, Turkey used to have summer houses in Meram, a district renowned for its wonderful nature and cool weather. Rumi, the great sufi poet, is known to have stayed in Meram for a while. In this miniature painting, he sits surrounded by whirling dervishes. Enriched with Seljuk ceramic tiles and carved wood panels, images of daily life in Meram, and women collaborating during the grape harvest, are also depicted.

Curator’s Note: Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Rumi, more popularly known simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic originally from Khorasan in Persia. He is buried in Konya, a city in Turkey’s Central Anatolian region.