SELJUK ANATOLIA, LATE 13TH/EARLY 14TH CENTURY

Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad (1226-1312) - known as Sultan Walad - was the son of Jalal al-Din Rumi and one of the founders of the Mawlawiyya order. Born in Laranda (present day Kirman), he was sent by his father to study religious sciences in Damascus and Aleppo. In 1284, he took up the succession which he had previously declined in favour of Çelebi Husam al-Din on his father's death. Sultan Walad organised the order and established branches outside Konya. With his succession really begins the history of the Mawlawiyya order.
This manuscript comprises ghazals from both Sultan Walad and his father. While the poems by Sultan Walad are preceded by ‘By the son, may God extend his shadow and blessing’, those of Rumi are preceded by ‘By the father, may God sanctify us with his secret’. These formulae would suggest that the manuscript was written after the death of Rumi but during the lifetime of his son dating it to 1273-1312. A similarly early copy of the Ibtidanama of Sultan Walad dated to 1291 was sold in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 174.
Not only is this rare manuscript one of the earliest works by Sultan Walad, but it is among the four oldest manuscripts recording poetry of the Diwan-i Shams of Rumi (see Nayeri, M., Khalil Jahromi, E., Razmjoo Bakhtiari, S. “The Study of Some Tarqimehs of Manuscripts of Shams’ Sonnets”, Researches on mystical literature (gowhar-i-guya), 7(1), (2013), pp. 27-52).