Ibrahim Gamard, an American psychologist along with Professor Rawan Farhadi, the former representative of Afghanistan to the UN completed the task after 22 years of work, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported on Monday.

Gamard in his recent visit to Konya said that he brought “The Quatrains of Rumi” to Konya to show his loyalty to Rumi and regarded this visit as an occasion to thank the 13th century Sufi poet.

The California-based Gamard indicated he was first introduced to Rumi’s philosophy through a group of Muslims who visited California in 1978, and since then he has been studying Rumi’s spiritual legacy.

“I converted into Islam in 1984 and made the Hajj pilgrimage in 1999. I have been learning Persian since 1981. I want to stay informed about Rumi’s ideas,” he said, adding, “However, my true love is to work with Rumi’s poetry.”

Gamard noted that he was introduced to Professor Rawan Farhadi in 1985, requested his help in translating Rumi’s quatrains into English, and the two started to work on translations.

The book contains the English translations of all of Rumi’s quatrains as well as their original Persian versions and commentary on them.