A brief review on Rumi’s
biography, art and beliefs
Arash Afraz
Dec 6, 2007
Shams and Mowlavi
Mahmoud Farshchian
Mowlavi
Morteza Momayyez
Mowlana Jalaluddin
Rumi
Tom Block
‫جالل الدین محمد بلخی رومی‬
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi
(Mowlana, Mevlana)
September 30, 1207, Balkh– December 17, 1273, Konya
Rumi’s family background and religion
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Father: Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad )‫محمد بهاءالدین ولد (سلطان العلما‬
Mother: Mo’meneh Khatun
‫مؤمنه خاتون‬
Religion: Hanafi Sunni
‫سنـّی حنفی‬
Immigration to Anatolia: 1221 AD ‫هـ‬618
Nationality: Disputed!!! Everybody claims him!
Rumi’s life stages
‫بهاالدین ولد سلطان العلما – برهان الدین محقق ترمذی‬
‫‪Baha ud-din Walad – Borhan ud-din‬‬
Shams of Tabriz
• Who was shams?
• Fatyān )‫ فتیان‬- ‫قلندریه (شطـّاران‬
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Shams and Rumi meet
Kimia Khatun ‫کیمیا خاتون‬
Disappearance of Shams
Effect of Shams on Rumi
‫شمس تبریزی‬
Shams
Morteza Momayyez
‫صالح الدین زرکوب‬
Salah ud-din Zarkoub
‫چلبی حسام الدین‬
Chalabi Hesam ud-din
Masnavi:
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Masnavi is composed in 6 books (25,575 couplets).
Composition of first book is started before Salah ud-din’s death.
After some delay, next five books (21,556 couplets) are composed between
663 and 672 : 6.7 couplet per day!
Rumi’s ordinary life
Family:
• His marriages:
1st marriage: Gohar Khatun (‫)گوهر خاتون دختر خواجه الالی سمرقندی‬, two
sons: Soltan Walad and Aladdin Chalabi
(‫)سلطان ولد – محمد عالءالدین چلبی‬
2nd marriage (After Gohar’s death): Kera Khatun (‫)کرا خاتون‬, one son
and one daughter: Amir Mozaffar ud-din and Malake Khatun
(‫)امیر مظفرالدین – ملکه خاتون‬
Rumi’s ordinary life
• His look:
Shaved head, shaved moustache, short
Round beard, very skinny body
• His clothing:
Light brown round felt hat,
dark gray turban, dark blue
long garment
Rumi’s ordinary life
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Was he a cleric?
His income: Madrasa income and presents
Sex life!
Few scenes from his life
Rumi’s beliefs
• Very abstract form of Gnosticism
• High religious tolerance (Thrianus story –
Christians and Jews in his burial)
• No ethnic discrimination
‫ای بسا هندو و ترک همزبان ای بسا دو ترک چون بیگانگان‬
• Anti-rationalism
‫فخر رازی رازدار دین بدی‬
‫اندر این ره گر خرد ره بین بدی‬
*****
‫پای استداللیون چوبین بود پای چوبین سخت بی تمکین بود‬
Rumi’s art
• Shams ghazals
Complaining from form:
‫مفتعلن مفتعلن مفتعلن کشت مرا‬
‫رستم ازین بیت وغزل ای شه سلطان ازل‬
Simple forms
• Masnavi
Using Simple tunes (Vazn) of Persian poetry:
Rumi (Masnavi):
(‫)فاعالتن فاعالتن فاعلن‬
‫آتش است این بانگ نای و نیست باد هر کس این آتش ندارد نیست باد‬
Hafez:
‫برباد اگر رود دل ما زان هوا رود (مفعول فاعالت مفاعیل‬
‫ما در درون سینه هوایی نهفته ایم‬
)‫فاعلن‬
Fluent, reflecting poet’s stream of thought and life: Assuming 50 couplets
for each sub-section
50 / 6.7~ 7 → weekly gatherings?!?!?
• Non-Persian poems (Turkish and Greek)
Rumi’s death
• Sunday, Dec 17, 1273 AD (672 H)
• Last poem:
Go lay (your) head on the pillow (and sleep). Leave
me
(to be) alone; leave me (to be) ruined, nightwandering, and afflicted.
I am alone with a wave of passion, from night until
day. If you wish, come with mercy; if you wish,
go (and) be harsh.
Escape from me, so that you may not also fall into
affliction!
Choose the path of safety (and) shun the path of
affliction.
With the tears of (my) eyes, I have crawled into the
corner
of sorrow. Grind the mill hundreds of times upon the
tears of my eyes.
For me there is an oppressor who has a heart like a
hard rock. He kills, (and) nobody tells him to
arrange payment of the blood-price!
For the king of the beautiful-faced ones, loyalty is not
necessary. (But) you be patient and faithful, O sallowfaced lover!
It is a pain for which there sis no remedy except to die.
So how can I ask that this pain be cured?
Last night I dreamed of an elder in the lane of Love: he
gestured to me with (his) hand, (meaning) "Make
(your) aim (to come) to me."
If there is a dragon on the road, Love is like an emerald
(which will blind it); drive away the dragon with the
(green) flash of this emerald!
Stop, since I am losing myself! If you are (a man) of
abundant knowledge, recite the History of so-andso3 (and) admonish so and so!
‫قبةالخضراء ‪ -‬قونیه‬
‫‪Rumi’s tomb - Konya‬‬
Special Thanks to:
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Cyrus Mossavar-Rahmani
Maryam Vaziri
Behtash Babadi
Baktash Babadi
Mohammad Hafezi
Pouya Alimagham