(b Balkh, Afghanistan, 30 Sept 1207; d Konya, Turkey, 1273). Persian mystic, poet and religious leader. Coming from a long line of theologians, as a boy he lived in Balkh, a great centre of Islamic civilization until its devastation by the Mongols. His family narrowly avoided this event, leaving in about 1217. In 1228 they eventually settled in Konya (then known as Rūm) at the invitation of the Seljuq ruler. Jalāl al-Dīn inherited his father's position as a revered theological teacher, but in 1244 Shams al-Dīn Tabrīzī, an enigmatic dervish, appeared and profoundly changed his life. Rūmī became totally immersed in mysticism. His vast output of writings is well preserved. His Dīvān-e Shams contains more than 3000 poems in the ghazal form. The Masnavī-ye macnavī, sometimes called `the Qur'an in Persian', comprises some ten volumes. He composed it in a state of ecstatic inspiration, singing as he danced around the pillar in his school.
The Mevlevi Sufi order is named after Rūmī’s honorific title ‘Mawlānā’ (‘master’). His eldest son Bahā al-Dīn Muhammad (1226–1312), better known as Sultān Veled, formalized the order from the community of Rūmī’s followers. Its ritual entails melodious singing from the Masnawī and other poetry, the use of musical instruments and the slow, graceful `whirling dervish' dance (see Islamic religious music, §II, 5). The end-blown flute (ney) is emblematic of the sacred ceremony, and the Masnavī opens with a famous mystical allusion to the reed-flute, symbolizing the Sufi lover's quest for union with the beloved (God): ‘Listen to the reed-flute, how it complains, lamenting its banishment from its home [the reed-bed]’. The anniversary of Rūmī's death is commemorated with important ceremonies at his shrine in Konya.
The Mathnawī of Jalālu'ddīn Rūmī, ed. R. Nicholson (Leiden and London, 1925–40)
The Ruba`iyāt of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, ed. A. Arberry (London, 1949)
Kulliyāt-i Shams yā Dīvān-i kabīr [Complete poems of Shams: the great collection] (Tehran, 1957)
A. Bausani: ‘Djalal al-Din’, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. M.T. Houtsma and others (Leiden and London, 1913–38, rev. 2/1960 – by H.A.R. Gibb and others), 393–7
VERONICA DOUBLEDAY