Geaves, Ron (University of Chester UK)

Rumi Weeds: Poems of a wayfarer Geaves, Ron (University of Chester UK)

Composed between 1984 and 2016, this selection of poems is loosely based on the theme of voyaging. Part 1 deals with the inward journey: part 2 was inspired by the poet's journeys through Asia and North Africa.

Ron Geaves is a retired professor of religion, whose travels have taken him to India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and Morocco. In these places he discovered an inspiration that has stayed with him throughout his life. He remains a visiting professor in the Centre for the Study of Islam in Britain based at the University of Cardiff. In 1994 he published the biography of Abdullah Quilliam, the iconic British convert to Islam who founded the first mosque and Islamic centre in Liverpool in 1893.