The Journey: Balkh to Konya
Rumi’s father Baha’ al-Din Walad was himself a scholar and mystic of Balkh. The family fled westward ahead of the Mongol invasions — through Nishapur (where the young Rumi may have met Attar), through Baghdad and Mecca, settling finally in Konya (Anatolia, then part of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum — hence Rumi = “of Rum/Anatolia”).
In Konya, Rumi became the head of his father’s school, a respected jurist and teacher with hundreds of students. He was learned, disciplined, established — and, by his own later account, unlit.
The Encounter with Shams al-Din
In November 1244 CE, a wandering stranger named Shams al-Din Tabrizi arrived in Konya. Various accounts describe their first meeting: the most famous has Shams challenging Rumi over the nature of knowledge versus love, and Rumi’s world breaking open. What followed was an intense friendship of such depth that it scandalized Rumi’s students and community.
Shams disappeared twice — once voluntarily, once murdered (reportedly by Rumi’s jealous disciples). Rumi’s grief over the loss of Shams produced the Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz — a collection of over 3,000 ghazals and poems that attribute their authorship not to Rumi but to Shams, as if Shams were speaking through him.
The Mawlawi (Whirling Dervish) Order
After Rumi’s death in 1273 CE, his son Sultan Walad formalized the Mawlawi (Turkish: Mevlevi) Order — the Sufi order that practices the sama’ (spiritual audition) with the characteristic turning (whirling). The turning (sema) represents the soul’s orbit around the divine center: the right hand raised to receive divine grace, the left lowered to transmit it to the earth.
Rumi’s tomb in Konya — the Mausoleum of Mevlana — remains one of the most visited sites in Turkey.
See also: Rumi Masnavi, Farid Al Din Attar, Sulook, Tazkiyah, Batin Zahir, Hikma Wisdom