Jalaluddin Rumi: A Quest of Trace in Konya

We have probably heard about Jalaluddin Rumi only as one of the legendary Islamic figures in Sufism. That’s what exactly happened to me, too. But I found this ignorance to become a curiosity when I have the occasion to visit the place where he used to live, in a beautiful city of Turkey. The name of that city is Konya.

Konya is an ancient city which has already existed since 4000 years ago when the Hittites inhabited this land. Then, the Phyrgians took over the city and changed its name, Kuwana, as Kowania. After being conquered by the Roman Empire, it was altered as Iconium, and finally the Turkish troops of Bani Seljuk gave its name as Konya. Konya is one of the three biggest cities besides Ankara and Antalya, but has the least population which is composed of 700,000 pupils.

As the center of the Islamic political party movement, Refah, it’s undeniable that Konya is one of the cities in Turkey with its strong atmosphere of Islamic religious activities. Afterall, in Konya you can find the house and also the tomb of Jalaluddin Rumi, where local pilgrims which reach 1,5 millions of people per year make their visit routinely, as well as foreign tourists mostly from Germany and Italy.

The house and the tomb are located inside a complex of a museum called Mevlâna Müzesi, or Museum of Jalaluddin Rumi. Mevlâna is a nickname given by his students, which means Our Counselor.

Jalaluddin Rumi was born in the year of 1207 in the town of Balkh, Afghanistan. Together with his family, they escaped to Nishapour, Iran, from the invasion of Mongolian troops. After doing a pilgrimage to Mecca, they moved to Erzincan and several other cities in Turkey, before finally settled in Konya upon request of the leader of Bani Seljuk, Alaeddin Keykubad.

Rumi’s father is a well-known and respected scholar. In the year of 1244, Rumi experienced the most important moment in his life when he met a Sufi wanderer named Syamsuddin Muhammad Tebrizi, who is also one of his fathers’ students. Rumi learnt a lot of Sufism from this man which is more recognized under the name Syems or Tabriz. Because of that reason, Rumi spent most of his time with him.

This led to a jealousy among Rumi’s students, so they decided to kill Syems in 1247. Another version said that the hatred spilled out amongst the people of Konya had caused Syems to runaway to hide, but Rumi couldn’t continue to learn without him so that he found Syems and took him back to the city.

However, this jealousy arised again when Rumi fully dedicated himself to the ceremony of Sufi’s dance—whirling dervish—and it caused Syems to disappear forever. This had made Rumi feel so desperate, and slowly he began to imitate himself with Syems and isolated from the outside world to meditate. During his isolation, Rumi wrote some works of poetry given the title Mathnawi, also several other short poetry which he collected in an Opus (book) titled under the name Divan’i Kebir. All his works were written in Persian language.

Come, whoever you may be, even if you may be, an infidel, a pagan, or a fire-worshipper, come.

Ours is not a brotherhood of despair.

Even if you have broken, Yours vow of repentance a hundred times, come.

His son, Sultan Veled, announced to the Rumi followers to gather in a group of brotherhood called Mevlevi, or the whirling dervishes. Their particular appearance is the long sleeve shirt and a long circular skirt that is loose to the ground, as well as a tall cylindrical hat. Why it is called whirling is because they do a circular movement in their dance which makes their skirt whirls and swells.

Rumi taught that everything which exists in this world is a representative of God. Even for characters that are contradictory such as beautiful-ugly, evil-good, rich-poor, wrong-right, Christian-Muslim, black-white, all of these are the incarnation of God.

The basic principles of Mevlevi’s teachings are to love God by seeing Him from human’s perspective as a fusion of His whole creation, and not to impose nor push aside anyone as a guilty figure.

Because of his wisdom, The Pope John XXIII even bowed to him on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. A famous German poet, Goethe, was even inspired by the translations of Mevlana’s poetry in writing one of his works.

By entering the site of this museum, I saw the characteristics of the museum which form a turquoise conical dome pressed between other spherical ones. After passing through a pond surrounded by a fence and is used for ablutions (we can also drink the fresh water pouring from its tap!), I entered a building where the tomb of Rumi and his son’s and his follower’s are situated.

By walking through the deeper side of the building, I had to jostle with other visitors, especially the local tourists who requested a wish to the spirit of the grandmaster of Sufi. So as to the pond for ablution situated outside the burial complex, I found it was filled with coins which were thrown by visitors wishing their dreams and prays to be fulfilled.

All the tombs of these Sufi figures are covered with fabrics embroidered with gold thread, but Rumi’s tomb and his son’s are marked with two big turbans on one edge, as a symbol of the spiritual world’s governor.

In the complex of the tomb, I also found some treasures from the Ottoman sultanate era, because Mehmet the Conqueror as well as Süleyman the Great are also followers of Mevlevi’s teachings. There are also some clothes which Rumi had ever put on, and musical instruments such as flute and baglama, Al-Qur’an from the Ottoman era, and praying rugs.

In the museum site there is also a building which was used to be an office and working place for the Mevlevis. I found several mannequins wearing sufi dresses gathered in a meeting room, also some cooking tools in a small kitchen.

Another interesting building inside the complex is a house divided into several small chambers, and each of its chambers is decorated so artistically so that it looked like the real version of the Sufi’s house. There Rumi spent his times meditating or doing his reading and writing activity.

However, the most attracting among other things in this wonderful site is a little box which is said to be contained a piece of hair that belongs to Prophet Mohammed. I don’t know how the story went on, was that Rumi or another sufi had the opportunity to meet him (as I couldn’t get the information in English), but I suppose the object which is kept inside that little box might be really the piece of hair of Prophet Mohammed… (God knows the best). ***

(published in Indonesian, in Noor Magazine, no.12/th.IV/December 2006)