--- title: Beyonce, Jay-Z Name Twins Rumi and Sir Carter: Who Was Rumi? description: One of the power couple's infant twins shares a name with a 13th-century Persian poet. Here's what to know about the original Rumi. canonical: https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-14T13:11:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:24:42.452Z article:section: History og:title: Beyonce, Jay-Z Name Twins Rumi and Sir Carter: Who Was Rumi? og:description: It's an appropriate name for such a musical family og:url: https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte08f9c0d98ecb560/6988d43abc6cfce32d3e216a/gettyimages-613274488.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Beyonce "The Formation World Tour" - Closing Night In East Rutherford og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beyonce, Jay-Z Name Twins Rumi and Sir Carter: Who Was Rumi? twitter:description: It's an appropriate name for such a musical family twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte08f9c0d98ecb560/6988d43abc6cfce32d3e216a/gettyimages-613274488.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beyoncé and Jay-Z Named Their Child Rumi. Here's What to Know About the History Behind the Name  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 14, 2017 1:11 PM UTC  Entertainer Beyonce and Jay Z perform on stage during closing night of "The Formation World Tour" at MetLife Stadium on October 7, 2016, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Entertainer Beyonce and Jay Z perform on stage during closing night of "The Formation World Tour" at MetLife Stadium on October 7, 2016, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.Larry Busacca/WireImage—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 14, 2017 1:11 PM UTC Weeks after the twins were born, Beyoncé and Jay-Z finally [confirmed](http://time.com/4842464/beyonce-jay-z-baby-names/) on Friday, via Beyoncé’s Instagram account, that they have named the new additions to their family Rumi and Sir Carter. While “Sir” may call to mind a wide range of[ knights in armor](http://time.com/4345085/game-of-thrones-knights-history-brienne/), the name Rumi summons just one individual from history: Jalal ad-din Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet whose work has remained beloved for hundreds of years. And, as it turns out, if the life of that original Rumi is any indication, the name is an appropriate one for a child in such a musical family. Rumi was a follower of Sufism, a mystical Islamic movement, and believed that the world was a “tomb” that separated the soul from the divine. He taught followers (dervishes, a word that meant “beggars”) that to release this “imprisoned spirit,” they should dance with “reed flutes, drums, and tambourines,” as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1972-11-27/page/64/) in a 1972 review of a performance by disciples of the movement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Through music and movement, they connected the spiritual world to the world of mankind. The poet’s was a bold, risky perspective, developed at a time that wasn’t conducive for free expression. He was a refugee, who fled from his birthplace in Afghanistan and found refuge in the city of Iconium (Konya in modern-day Turkey). “No other poet found such ecstasy in daily wonderment, in song, in vision, in wine, in dance and most important, in friendship,” TIME [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1999-12-31/page/158/) in a 1999 feature on the most influential people in history, which dubbed him “mystic of the \[13th\] century.” Jawid Mojaddedi, an expert on Rumi at Rutgers, once [described](http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140414-americas-best-selling-poet) him as “an experimental innovator among the Persian Poets.” It is said that after the murder of his close companion, a mystic named Shams of Tabriz, Rumi first realized the potential of the spiritual level of life, as TIME [explained](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,356133,00.html) in 2002 when his work experienced a resurgence in popularity: --- > “” --- Rumi scholars, the piece explained, often noted that modern interest in Rumi and his spiritual ideas tended to gloss over the Islamic moorings of his philosophy. But, as was undeniably the case when Barks’ translation of Rumi sold hundreds of thousands of copies — or when Madonna combined translations of his words with music for Deepak Chopra’s 1998 album [_A Gift of Love: Music Inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi,_](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-gift-of-love-music-inspired-by-the-love-poems-of-rumi-deepak-chopra/384078) or when a potential Rumi [biopic](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/06/jalaluddin-al-rumi-film-muslim-stereotypes-gladiator-david-franzoni) is discussed — something in his verses speaks to many people all over the world and across the centuries. And now, with the introduction of baby Rumi, that list of followers has grown by at least one more. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/"},"headline":"Beyoncé and Jay-Z Named Their Child Rumi. Here's What to Know About the History Behind the Name","datePublished":"2017-07-14T13:11:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:24:42.452Z","description":"It's an appropriate name for such a musical family","url":"https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/","keywords":["People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte08f9c0d98ecb560/6988d43abc6cfce32d3e216a/gettyimages-613274488.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte08f9c0d98ecb560/6988d43abc6cfce32d3e216a/gettyimages-613274488.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beyonce \"The Formation World Tour\" - Closing Night In East Rutherford","caption":"Beyonce \"The Formation World Tour\" - Closing Night In East Rutherford","creditText":"Larry Busacca/WireImage—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/people/","name":"People"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4842522/beyonce-jayz-twins-rumi-poet/","name":"Beyoncé and Jay-Z Named Their Child Rumi. Here's What to Know About the History Behind the Name"}}]}] ```