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Lot Essay
Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad (AH 623-712/1226-1312 AD) - 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 Karman), he was sent by his father to study religious sciences in Damascus and Aleppo. In AH 683/1284 AD, 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.
The Mawlawiyya order is a Sufi order founded in 1273 by Jalal al-Din Rumi, the well known 13th century Persian poet, jurist and theologian of Konya. They became a well-established Sufi order in the Ottoman Empire through realising a blood relationship with the Ottoman Sultans when Devlet Hatun, a descendant of Sultan Walad, married the Sultan Bayezid I. Their son, Mehmet I Çelebi, became the next Sultan and he as his descendants subsequently endowed the order with many gifts.
The Ibtida-nama (The Book of the Beginning) is one of Sultan Walad's three major works (the Rabab-nama and the Intiha-nama being the other two). Written in the style of a Mathnavi, it constitutes an important source for the biographers of Baha al-Din (Rumi's father) and Mawlana (Rumi) as well as for the early history of the order.
The Ibtida-nama was written between Rabi' I and Jumada II AH 690. The final page of the present manuscript states that work on it began on the 1st Rabi' I AH 690 (4 March 1291 AD) and finished on 4 Jumada II (4 June) of the same year. The paper of the present manuscript is typical of the highest quality of the 13th century, and the hand also is convincing as such.
There is a strong possibility that the present copy was in fact copied by Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Qonawi al-Waladi. An extremely close hand is found in the copy of Mawlana's famous Mathnavi in Konya Mawlana Musem. The colophon of that manuscript states that the manuscript was finished in the year AH 677/1278 AD and indicates that it was written 'by Mohammad, the son of Qonawi 'Abdullah who is a Valadi' (a person devoted to Sultan Walad). Furthermore the colophon mentions that al-Qonawi copied the version from the 'original copy' written in the presence of Çalabi Husam al-Din, Mawlana's Khalifa and his son Sultan Valad and that during the process of the copying, various sessions were read to Mawlana for proofs, during which Mawlana amended and corrected the text. That manuscript is the only version of the Mathnavi that was copied from the drafts recited by Mawlana (Abdulbaki Golpinarli, Preface to the facsimile of the Konya Mathnavi, Ankara, 1993). Given the closeness of style and hand it is very possible that the present manuscript was also copied by al-Qonawi. On this basis it has therefore been suggested the al-Qonawi, as the household scribe of Sultan Walad, inscribed many or all of the major works of the early Mawlawi saints, and that this is amongst them.
The Mawlawiyya order is a Sufi order founded in 1273 by Jalal al-Din Rumi, the well known 13th century Persian poet, jurist and theologian of Konya. They became a well-established Sufi order in the Ottoman Empire through realising a blood relationship with the Ottoman Sultans when Devlet Hatun, a descendant of Sultan Walad, married the Sultan Bayezid I. Their son, Mehmet I Çelebi, became the next Sultan and he as his descendants subsequently endowed the order with many gifts.
The Ibtida-nama (The Book of the Beginning) is one of Sultan Walad's three major works (the Rabab-nama and the Intiha-nama being the other two). Written in the style of a Mathnavi, it constitutes an important source for the biographers of Baha al-Din (Rumi's father) and Mawlana (Rumi) as well as for the early history of the order.
The Ibtida-nama was written between Rabi' I and Jumada II AH 690. The final page of the present manuscript states that work on it began on the 1st Rabi' I AH 690 (4 March 1291 AD) and finished on 4 Jumada II (4 June) of the same year. The paper of the present manuscript is typical of the highest quality of the 13th century, and the hand also is convincing as such.
There is a strong possibility that the present copy was in fact copied by Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Qonawi al-Waladi. An extremely close hand is found in the copy of Mawlana's famous Mathnavi in Konya Mawlana Musem. The colophon of that manuscript states that the manuscript was finished in the year AH 677/1278 AD and indicates that it was written 'by Mohammad, the son of Qonawi 'Abdullah who is a Valadi' (a person devoted to Sultan Walad). Furthermore the colophon mentions that al-Qonawi copied the version from the 'original copy' written in the presence of Çalabi Husam al-Din, Mawlana's Khalifa and his son Sultan Valad and that during the process of the copying, various sessions were read to Mawlana for proofs, during which Mawlana amended and corrected the text. That manuscript is the only version of the Mathnavi that was copied from the drafts recited by Mawlana (Abdulbaki Golpinarli, Preface to the facsimile of the Konya Mathnavi, Ankara, 1993). Given the closeness of style and hand it is very possible that the present manuscript was also copied by al-Qonawi. On this basis it has therefore been suggested the al-Qonawi, as the household scribe of Sultan Walad, inscribed many or all of the major works of the early Mawlawi saints, and that this is amongst them.