New Epic Rumi Television Show About the Great Sufi Poet and Mystic
Here's where you can watch episode 1 for free
TRT is like the BBC of Turkey, and if I am understanding things correctly, they are launching a new international online streaming service, Tabii, a Turkish Netflix of sorts, where you will finally be able to easily watch Turkish shows with subtitles in English and Urdu and possibly even Spanish. The Tabii website has a waiting list right now for Americans, but you can start watching on YouTube in the meantime. (With a VPN you can access the free content at their website, but it’s entirely in Turkish.)
The first Rumi episode is on YouTube for free and includes English subtitles. Joining their Tabii Watch channel on YouTube is $1.99/month.
I hate giving money to YouTube, but I’m going to get this until the Tabii website supports English subtitles. It will be well worth it.
If you haven’t watched Turkish epic historical television yet, prepared to be wowed with the amazing sets, costumes, and crazy battles.
Now, we’re not watching a series on the great Sufi poet Rumi for the battle scenes…but apparently we are, because I’m not quite halfway through episode 1 of Rumi, and a good portion of it is setting up for some serious battletime with a literal hoard of Mongols.
If you want quiet and poetry, you may be disappointed…but hang in there. I’m sure that will pop up too. Meanwhile, for a quieter Sufi show, I’ll direct you to watch Yunus Emre, which is a fine Turkish show about another, lesser known Sufi poet.
I’ll write a full review of Rumi later, and you can get started on watching the first episode, embedded above. BTW, a lot of Turkish television episodes are movie length (and movie quality). Enjoy.