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The Mesnavi and The Acts of the Adepts, by Jelal-'d-din Rumi and Shemsu-'d-Din Ahmed, tr. by James W. Redhouse, [1881], at sacred-texts.com
Genealogy of Jelālu-’d-Dīn, Rūmī.
On his father's side, the remote ancestor of Jelālu-’d-Dīn, during Islāmic times, was Abū-Bekr, the dearest and most faithful friend of Muhammed the Arabian lawgiver, and his successor in the government of the community of Islām, as the first of the long line of Caliphs.
Like Muhammed himself, Abū-Bekr was of the tribe of Quraysh, which claims descent, through Ishmael, from Abraham, the chosen Friend of God, and Father of the faithful. The stem of Abū-Bekr's branch of the tribe unites with that of Muhammed in Murra, ancestor to Muhammed in the seventh degree, and to Abū-Bekr in the sixth.
Abū-Bekr was, furthermore, one of Mohammed's fathers-in-law, as his daughter ‘Ā’isha was the Prophet's only virgin bride.
A son or grandson of Abū-Bekr is said to have been among the Arabian conquerors of Khurāsān during the caliphate of ‘Uthmān (Osmān), about a.h. 25 (a.d. 647), and to have settled at Balkh (the capital of the ancient Bactria), where his family flourished until after the birth of Jelālu-’d-Dīn. 1
At an uncertain period subsequent to a.h. 491 (a.d. 1097), a daughter of one of the Kh’ārezmian kings of Central Asia was given in marriage to Jelālu-’d-Dīn's great-great-grandfather, whose name is either not mentioned by Eflākī, or I have missed it. She gave birth to Jelāl's great-grandfather, Ahmed, surnamed El-Khatībī (as being, apparently, a son or descendant, or a client, of a public preacher, Khatīb).
Nothing more is mentioned of Ahmed by Eflākī, than that he had a son Huseyn, surnamed Jelālu-’d-Dīn, who married a daughter of a certain Khurrem-Shāh, King of Khurāsān, and became grandfather, by her, to the author of the Mesnevī. His son, Mohammed, surnamed Bahā’u-’d-Dīn, styled Sultānu-’l-‘Ulemā, and commonly known as Bahā’u-’d-Dīn Veled, or shorter as Bahā Veled, appears also to have married a lady, by whom he had three children, a daughter and two sons.
Bahā Veled's eldest child, his daughter, was married off, and remained at Balkh, when Bahā Veled, his mother, and two sons left it, a year or so before it was taken and devastated by Jengīz Khān in a.h. 608 (a.d. 1211). His elder son is not again mentioned by Eflākī after their departure from Balkh. Neither is the mother of his children once mentioned. But his own mother, the princess, was alive, and was still with him in about a.d. 1230; after which, she too is not again mentioned.
Bahā Veled's youngest child, his most celebrated son Mohammed, surnamed Jelālu-’d-Dīn, Mevlānā, Khudāvendgār, and Rūmī, the principal personage of these memoirs, the founder of the order of the Mevlevī dervishes, and author of the Mesnevī, had four children, three boys and a girl, by two wives. His eldest son was killed
in the broil that caused the murder of his father's friend Shemsu-’d-Dīn of Tebrīz. His youngest son is not taken further notice of; but his daughter was married off to a local prince, and left Qonya.
His second son, and eventually his successor as Principal or Abbot of his order, was named Muhammed, and surnamed Bahā’u-'Dīn. He is commonly known as Sultan Veled.
Sultan Veled had six children, a boy and two girls by his wife Fātima, daughter of Sheykh Ferīdūn the Gold- beater, and three boys, of whom two were twins, by two slave women. The daughters married well, and all his sons, or three of them, succeeded him as Abbot, one after the other. The eldest was Mīr ‘Ārif (Chelebī Emīr ‘Ārif), the second was named ‘Ābid, the third Zāhid, and the fourth Wāhid.
Chelebī Emīr ‘Arif, the eldest, and Eflākī's patron, had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Emīr ‘Ālim, surnamed Shāh-zāda, succeeded eventually to the primacy after his uncles. With him, Eflākī's memoir is brought to a close.
Such was the natural line of this dynasty of eminent men. But Eflākī has also given the links of a spiritual series, through whom the mysteries of the dervish doctrines were handed down to and in the line of Jelālu-’d-Dīn.
In the anecdote No. 79, of chapter iii., the account is given of the manner in which the prophet Muhammed confided those mysteries to his cousin, son-in-law, and afterwards his fourth successor, as Caliph, ‘Alī son of Abū-Tālib, the "Victorious Lion of God."
‘Alī communicated the mysteries to the Imām Hasan of Basra, who died in a.h. 110 (a.d. 728); Hasan taught them to Habīb the Persian, 1 who confided them to Dāwūd
of the tribe of Tayyi’,—Et-Tā’ī (mentioned by D’Herbelot, without a date, as Davud Al Thai; he died a.h. 165, a.d. 781).
Dāwūd transmitted them to Ma‘rūf of Kerkh (who died a.h. 200, a.d. 815); he to Sirrī the merchant of damaged goods (Es-Saqatī?; died a.h. 253, a.d. 867); and he to the great Juneyd (who died in about a.h. 297—a.d. 909). Juneyd's spiritual pupil was Shiblī (died a.h. 334, a.d. 945) who taught Abu-‘Amr Muhammed, son of Ibrāhīm Zajjāj (the Glazier), of Nīshāpūr (who died in a.h. 348—a.d. 959) and his pupil was Abū-Bekr, son of ‘Abdu-’llāh, of Tūs, the Weaver, who taught Abū-Ahmed (Muhammed son of Muhammed, El-Gazālī (who died a.h. 504—a.d. 1110), and he committed those mysteries to Ahmed el-Khatībī, Jelāl's great-grandfather, who consigned them to the Imām Sarakhsī (who died in a.h. 571—a.d. 1175).
Sarakhsī was the spiritual teacher of Jelāl's father Bahā Veled, who taught the Seyyid Burhānu-’d-Dīn Termīzi, the instructor of Jelāl. He again passed on the tradition to Shemsu-’d-Dīn of Tebrīz, the teacher of Jelāl's son, Sultan Veled, who himself taught the Emīr ‘Ārif.
At the same time that the mysteries were thus being gradually transmitted to Jelālu-’d-Dīn and his successors by these links, they were also being diffused in thousands of other channels, and are at this day widely diffused over the world of Islām, which daily boasts of its living saints and their miracles. These latter are perhaps not less veracious that those continually blazoned forth by the Church of Rome, and by its Eastern sisters. We, too, have our spiritualists. Credulity will never forsake mankind and prodigies will never be lacking for the credulous to place faith in. There is much that is human in man, all the world over.
132:1 A genealogy is given in the Turkish preface to my copy of the Mesnevī, which traces the descent of Jelālu-’d-Dīn Mohammed from Abū-Bekr in ten degrees, as follows:—"Jelālu-’d-Dīn, son of Bahā’u-’d-Dīn, son of Huseyn, son of Ahmed, son of Mevdūd, son of Sābit (Thābit), son of Museyyeb, son of Mutahhar, son of Hammād, son of ‘Abdu-’r-Rahmān, son of ‘Abū-Bekr." Now, Abdu-’r-Rahmān, the eldest of all the sons of Abū-Bekr, died and was buried at Mekka in a.h. 53(a.d. 672), and p. 133 Jelālu-’d-Dīn was born at Balkh in a.h. 604 (a.d. 1207). Between these two there are nine degrees of descent given, for a period of 535 years, or 66 years for each life after the birth of the next link. This alone suffices to show that the genealogy is not to be depended on. Supposing the names given to be true, many other links must be missing; as many, probably, as those given.
134:1 Habīb the Persian, a wealthy man, converted to Islam by one word from Hasan of Basra, whose devoted disciple he became. He died a.h. 106 (a.d. 724).