rumi ghazal 1422: I am a moth of the king مولانا:طوافِ حاجیان دارم

Rumi01: The Life of Rumi: Jalal-ud Din Muhammad (Mevlana/Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi/Balkhi) was born on 30 Sep 1207 in Balkh, which was part of Khurasan in Khawarezm in an area around the present day border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. His father Baha-ud Din Valad was a reputed scholar with the title sultan-ul ulema (the king of clerics). The family fled Balkh few years before the Mongol hordes destroyed Balkh in the spring of 1221. The family stayed in Baghdad for about a month, where, Baha-ud Dins lectures were well attended. Then the family performed the Hajj. Baha-ud Din then moved to Eastern Anatolia where he taught at a madressah in Aqshahr for 4 years. Then the family moved to Larende (now Karaman), southeast of Konya (then the capital of Seljuks). In Larende, Rumi married Gowhar Khatun in 1224. The family moved to Konya in 1229. The Sultan, Ala-ud Din Kayqubad had invited Baha-ud Din to his capital city. The Sultan lodged Baha-ud Din in a local madressah, where he started teaching. When he died in 1231, Rumi was 24 years old.. After his fathers death, Jalaluddin studied under Burhan-ud Din Muhaqqiq for about 9 years. Muhaqqiq was a disciple of Baha-ud Din. He taught Rumi Maarif (Baha-ud Dins book). Muhaqqiq then sent him to Syria where for a few years he studied at the reputed madaris in Aleppo and Damascus. On his return Rumi met Burhan-ud Din Muhaqqiq in Kayseri. He urged Rumi to move to Konya and continue his fathers work. Burhan-ud Din died in Kayseri in 1240-41. Rumi took over the madressah in Konya and started teaching. Meanwhile Gowher Khatun died and he married Kerra Khatun. Now Rumis fame spread and he became well known as a teacher and theologian. His lectures were well attended by both the common people and the rulers and officials. He himself liked to be with the low and middle class people and tried to ignore the high class as much as he could. So, in his mid 30's Rumi had a well established position, both religiously and socially. But it all changed in 1244. The man who did that was Shams-ud Din of Tabriz. There are 2-3 different versions of the first meeting. Probably he asked Rumi a difficult question about Bayazid Bistami. Shams-ud Din was probably around 60 years of age at that time. He was staying in a caravansarai in Konya where mostly traders lived. He used to teach informally. He tried to stay away from people. He had a small room where he lived and sometimes used to knit belts (azaar band) for living. Rumi was completely absorbed in him. He started spending more and more time with him and started ignoring his lectures and his students and murids. This raised many eyebrows. Shams one day left Konya quietly without any trace. This made it only worse. Rumi was now burning in pain of separation. He started saying ghazals about love and separation. Finally it became evident that Shams was in Damascus, so he sent his son Sultan Valad there. Rumi arranged a marriage for Shams, with a servant named Kimia. They were also provided a room to live. The hope was that he would settle down. But the intrigues returned. So in 1248 he disappeared for a second time, this time never to return. There were two theories, suggesting that he was murdered, or that he moved East towards Tabriz. Recently his grave is believed to have been discovered in Khoy (West Azerbaijan, Iran). See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shamseddine_tabrizi_tower_khoy.jpg Rumi was in complete distress. Many a times he would walk the streets like a mad man and ask people if they had seen Shams. His best loved ghazals were probably written around that time. The people of Konya felt his pain too and he was always respected. I believe that this was the best litmus test for his position as a man of Sharia and a Sufi and theologian. Gradually he accepted the fate and calmed down. Then he made Salah-ud Din Zarkob (a jeweler) his spiritual friend. When Salah-ud Din died around 1262, Hosam-ud Din Chelebi (also his disciple) acquired that position. Chelebi also took charge of writing Masnawi. In 1262 Rumi appointed him to be his successor. Rumi passed away in Konya on 17 December 1273. His tomb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Turkey.Konya008.jpg This account is mostly based on: (1) Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Franklin D. Lewis. (2) The Truimphal Sun. Annemarie Schimmel. Ghazal 1422: بحر: ہزج مثمن سالم وزں: مفاعیلن مفاعیلن مفاعیلن مفاعیلن Easy wazan: (322:322::322:322) (تنن تن تن:تنن تن تن:: تنن تن تن ::تنن تن تن) Urdu Translation/Reading: Tariq Akbar (KhamoshTamashai)