Mirah is a small, fast JVM language that uses Ruby syntax but compiles to Java bytecode. It was created by Charles Oliver Nutter, the creator of JRuby, who wanted to write Java code using a language as expressive as Ruby. Mirah has Ruby's syntactic sugar but is statically typed and compiled like Java, without runtime modification. It uses type inference and macros to provide Ruby-like conveniences while compiling to a small footprint without needing a runtime library, making it suitable for mobile applications. Developers can get started with Mirah by installing it with RVM and writing code that looks like Ruby but compiles to Java classes.