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The great Turkish mystic and poet Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi was born in Balkh, in Afghanistan, on September 30, 1207 A.D.
His father Bahaeddin Veled, who was known as Sultan-ul Ulema (the king of the learned men), was a renowned scholar who, however, raised the ire of the established academia of his times by criticizing the tenets of Greek philosophy. This and the start of the Mongol invasions made him decide to leave Balkh. This was when Mevlana was only five years old. The family, which reached Anatolia after stopping in Yemen and Damascus, lived in Larende (Karaman) for seven years; and then, upon the invitation of the Selcuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat, Bahaeddin Veled settled in Konya in Central Anatolia in 1220. Meanwhile Mevlana married Gevher Hatun in Karaman; his son, Sultan Veled, was born in 1226 in the same town. Bahaeddin Veled, Mevlana's father, was a cultured scholar and mystic.
His knowledge, his discourses and his environment played a significant role in shaping and educating Mevlana, who advanced so rapidly that when his father died in 1230, he had already become a scholar and a teacher at the tender age of 23. Thus it would not been an exaggeration to say that Mevlana had learned the fundamentals of philosophy and mysticism from his father.
When Bahaeddin Veled died in 1230, a friend and a student of his, Burhaneddin Muhakkik Tirmizi, came to Konya and functioned as Mevlana's teacher for 9 years, before he relocated in Kayseri and died there in 1242.
Mevlana was also educated in the two major university centers of the time, Aleppo and Damascus; he was a well-rounded scholar who had accumulated much theological and scientific knowledge. He had such command of Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Greek that he could write poetry in all four languages.
Mevlana, who first met Shemsaddin Tebrizi in 1244, so fell under his spell that the emergence of Mevlana as mystic poet is traced to the effect Shemsaddin Tebrizi had on him. Much, most of it speculative, has been said about the personality and identity of Shemsaddin Tebrizi, this wielder of such a powerful effect on the spirit of Mevlana, himself the strangest of personalities.
Everything seems to point to Shemsaddin Tebrizi's being a sufi master of such extraordinary knowledge and power that he could touch and light the torch in Mevlana's heart, in a sense transforming him. It was also Shems, who taught Mevlana the ritual dance-like practice called SEM'A and the latter conceived it almost as a form of prayer or meditation. Shems, who must have reached rarefied spiritual heights, was a fearless man who would make no concessions to the prejudices of the masses or the learned, either in behavior or in speech. So he made a great number of enemies and was not at all popular in Konya. Therefore he left Konya and went to Damascus in 1245; but returned to Konya when Mevlana implored him to, such was the older man's attachment to Shems. Two years later, in 1247, Shems disappeared in a mysterious manner and was never heard of again.
Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi's masterpiece, his six volume Mesnevi, consisting of 25700 couplets, is regarded as the most outstanding work of Persian-Islamic mysticism. It is not clear when Mevlana started writing the Mesnevi, though it is known that he started on the second volume of his magnum opus in 1264.
This masterpiece of Islam's mystic literature was written in the form of poetry which included philosophical, mystical, and spiritual messages and could in a sense be considered allegories which carry deep spiritual and religious meanings.
His second masterpiece, Divan-i Shems, though smaller in size, is no less important from a literary and mystical standpoint. Divan-i Shems or (Divan-i Kebir as it is sometimes called) is a collection of verses (gazels) in which Mevlana reached heights of poetry, music and mysticism. It is regarded as the mature expression of his consciousness of universal unity (Vahdet-i Vucud).
Apart from these two masterpieces, Mevlana produced works, called Fihi Ma-Fih, Mecalis-i Seba and Mektubat (or Letters) which have all been translated into Turkish, and also, in part or in full, into Arabic, English, French and German.
Following a short bout with an illness Mevlana died in Konya on December 17, 1273, whereupon Husameddin Celebi, a student and a disciple of his, stepped into his place on the insistence of Mevlana's son Sultan Veled. Upon the former's death in 1284, Sultan Veled in turn became the master and made important contributions to the emergence of the sect which is called Mesnevi (Mevlevi) after Mevlana's name.
Mevlana was not only a great poet and philosopher but first and foremost he was a mystic, a spiritually touched man. His mind and heart had reached for heights and depths of the spiritual world. In his vision there were two universes which coincided in Man. The inner world was like an endless infinite ocean, which could only be felt and seen with the eyes of the heart, while the outer world was but like the passing foam which appears on the surface of the waves emanating from that ocean.
of the secret wine Mevlana also integrated a dualist approach in his mind: in approaching issues pertaining to daily life he is a rationalist, but in approaching spiritual and mystical matters he recognizes only the mastery of the heart and emotions. According to him, the only way to approach absolute being is through love; and God's love is everywhere, permeating everything. If one were to love another being in the name of God, one would find a pathway leading to the absolute. According to him everything in the universe, every being, even matter itself, are all are but manifestations of God and exist in God and are united in the Absolute Being. Thus Mevlana views all existence as a united whole. In a sense, one could call his vision that of Unity Consciousness. This vision impelled Mevlana to transcend all differences and prejudices, and formed the basis of his immense tolerance and of his real and deep humanism. With these characteristics, Mevlana and his thought transcended the boundaries of his time and thus he and his writings are still relevant and fresh in this day and age, some 700 years after. The universality of his thought finds its reflection in, for example, the famous verses where he says:
Come!
With the tens of thousands of verses he wrote, and with the depths of spirituality he fathomed which helped him grasp qualities of timelessness and humanistic universality, Mevlana and the sect which was founded after him, have not only influenced the Anatolian-Turkish civilizations, but indeed, have had far-reaching influences on the intellectual and artistic life of many individuals and nations.
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