Rumi

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, known simply as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, and the founder of the Mevlevi Order, a Muslim brotherhood. Born near Balkh, his family was forced westward by the Mongol invasions, eventually settling in Konya when he was nineteen. Because Konya had recently been part of the Eastern Roman Empire, he became known as Rumi, meaning “the Roman.” Though raised around Sufi ideas, he was initially expected to follow his father’s path as a scholar. Everything changed with the arrival of the wandering dervish Shams Tabrīzī. The two became deeply attached, and when Shams vanished, Rumi’s grief poured into his *Divan of Shams Tabrīzī*, a turning point that sparked his poetic career. His *Masnavi*, often called a “Qur’an in Persian,” is considered one of the greatest works in Persian literature, and many Muslims rank it second only to the Quran itself. Today, Rumi’s translated poems are read worldwide, and he has been called the most popular poet in the world, even becoming the best-selling poet in the United States in recent years.

His full name, recorded by a contemporary, was Muhammad bin Muhammad bin al-Husayn al-Khatibi al-Balkhi al-Bakri. More commonly, he is called Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī—Jalal ad-Din meaning “Glory of the Faith.” The names Balkhī and Rūmī are nisbas indicating his origins: from Balkh and from Anatolia, then known as Rûm. According to biographer Franklin Lewis, Anatolia was still called Rum by Arabs, Persians, and Turks even after Muslim conquest, so “Rumi” simply meant someone from that region. He was also known as “Mullah of Rum.” In Iran, he is widely called Mawlānā (meaning “our master”), and in Turkey, Mevlânâ. The term Mawlawī or Mevlevi (“my master”) is also used for him.

Rumi was born to Persian parents in Wakhsh, a village in present-day Tajikistan, where his father Bahā’ uddīn Walad worked as a preacher and jurist. When Rumi was about five, the family moved to Samarkand. Greater Balkh was then a major Persian cultural center, and Sufism had flourished there for centuries. Besides his father, the poets Attar and Sanai deeply influenced him; Rumi once wrote, “Attar was the spirit, Sanai his eyes twain, And in time thereafter, Came we in their train.” His father was also linked to the spiritual lineage of Najm al-Din Kubra. Rumi spent most of his life under the Persianate Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, producing his works there. He died in 1273 and was buried in Konya, where his shrine became a pilgrimage site. After his death, his son Sultan Walad and his followers founded the Mevlevi Order, famous for the whirling dance of the Sama ceremony. Rumi was laid to rest beside his father, and a shrine was built over their graves. A hagiographical account by Shams ud-Din Ahmad Aflāki, written between 1318 and 1353, mixes legend with fact, so scholars like Franklin Lewis treat it carefully, separating the legendary biography from the historical one.

Rumi’s father, Bahā ud-Dīn Walad, was a theologian, jurist, and mystic from Wakhsh, known to followers as Sultan al-Ulama (“Sultan of the Scholars”). According to Sultan Walad’s writings and Aflaki, Rumi was a descendant of Abu Bakr, though modern scholars doubt this claim. The idea of maternal descent from the Khwarazmshah is also considered a non-historical tradition meant to connect him to royalty.