Migration of Maulana Rumi RA from Balkh to Konya
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
The thought of writing about the migration of Rumi’s family from Balkh to Konya came when I was writing about interaction of Rumi with Shams Tabrizi in my article “Hindsight is Essential for Foresight” (Pakistan Link, Sep 21, 2018). This interaction between Rumi and Shams Tabrizi evolved Jalaluddin from a local scholar of logos of Theology, Logic, Law and Ethics to become Rumi, a world-renowned poet with Gnosis of God and eternal values. The migration of this family gives us an understanding of how migrations rejuvenate individuals and societies and how Muslims reached the four corners of the world as this process continues to this day.
Muslims have a long and complicated history of migration from Arabia to distant lands. Imbued with renewed faith after Muhammad SA, Muslims became the third force to save the world order crippled by incessant wars between Byzantine and Persian Empires in their bid to become the world’s sole superpower.
Muhammad SA was sent to rejuvenate the concept of One God, and to explain in subtle words the mistakes which the people of the previous prophets made and filled the land with chaos, and to suggest some basic laws that needed to be adhered to voluntarily based on the belief in One God and day of accountability before Him to bring peace back to society. To understand how the universal reformative message of Islam became embroiled in the politics of administration and law, the following realities must be at the back of one’s mind.
Nabi SA was born at a time when the world was passing through a dark period trying to find light. Persians and Byzantines were trying to find it by dominating over other civilizations. The faithful Jews and Christians moved to Yathrib (now called Medina) believing in the coming of the last prophet in the land of dates to liberate them from their sufferings. This was promised to them in the Bible. It was difficult for the Jews to reconcile to the coming of this last prophet in the clan of Ishmael and not in the clan of Jacob as was the tradition (peace be upon both). But God fulfilled His promise to Hagar in the Book of Genesis: He will raise Ishmael into a big nation.
There were many leaders (Syeds) from the tribes of pagans, Quraysh, Jews and Christians in Medina who had a great sway on the local populace and politics who embraced Islam. Lots of them were sincere to Nabi SA and faithful to the message. Yet there were many who were steeped in clan prejudice and selfish agendas but became name-sake Muslims. They joined with the local pagans to create hurdles in the path of this budding movement of a life of peace through submission to God, Islam. Muhammad SA handed over the reign of Arabia to the sincere and knowledgeable amongst them, and let his family of whom Ali RA, his son-in-law was the only adult male (about 35 years) to guard the door of knowledge which was given to him through revelation.
The ruling superpowers of the time, The Byzantines and the Persians, were not comfortable with the emerging third force of Islam. They felt threatened by its promising message of bringing people out of exploitation by various systems, and to bring them into the system of universal justice under One God who created all people equal. Byzantines and Persians wanted to nip this evolving system in the bud to protect their rule and their exploitation. This resulted in wars between Muslims and both of them. As the general populace of both these superpowers was disillusioned, they supported the voluntary armies of Muslims resulting in miraculous victories for Muslims.
These victories were not possible without the support of the elite and the armies of the two powers. The volunteer army of Muslims conquered Caucuses in NE, China in the East, Morocco and Spain in the West and India in the South in the first century of Hijra. Some of them who supported the invading Muslims wanted to bring real change in their societies through this new philosophy and its new policies and strategies, others only joined the bandwagon of victories to ensure their position in the rapidly spreading new order as happens during all revolutions.
It was difficult for Muslims to establish an order based on their world view because most of the people of the conquered land did not share it and there were very few Muslims who were imbued with the spirit of Islam to administer the territories of their own. When these Muslims had to devote their time in administrative matters, it pushed the reformative effort to the backburner. This also put Islam and Muslims against both Jews and the Romans who were historical law givers and administrators.
Muslims gave the most sacrifices because of this change of role from reformers to administrators. Umar and Osman were martyred by the reactionaries. Ali (RAA) was also martyred when he tried to subdue those who were creating chaos in the name of revenge (Qasas) for Osman RA. Hasan RA, the elder grandson of Nabi SA, brought a semblance of peace by abandoning his claim to rule. But Hussain RA, the younger one, by taking his responsibility to restore the letter and spirit of the religion, fell into the trap of the old players at the game who called him to Iraq from Medina promising to make him the leader but martyred him and most of his family. The Muslim world is embroiled into intractable conflicts to this day in their own land. Some call it the old tribal rivalries and others call it as a revenge for the killing of Osman and Hussain RAA. Everyone is dirtying his hand and reputation by trying to create an opportunity in the calamity faced by the Muslim World.
Alluding to this situation Shah Waliullah RA has said in his epoch-making book HujjathullahulBaligha in chapter of trials: Prophethood ended with the death of Muhammad SA. Khilafa without use of sword between Muslims ended with the martyrdom of Osman RA. Institution of Khilafa with its true spirit ended with abdication by Hasan RA. Umayyad fought companions of prophets in the name of seeking Qasas for Martyrdom of Osman to establish the Umayyad Dynasty. Abbasids replaced Umayyad to continue their rule on the footsteps of Persia and Byzantine Empires.
Even though the word of Qur’an remained largely unchanged during the dynastic rule of Abbasids and other splinter Imarath, its interpretation was changed to accommodate the aspirations of people in the conquered lands. Those who were committed to keep the word and spirit of his teaching alive moved away from the theater of war and became teachers and conscience-bearers in the conquered land. Some of them later moved as traders to Kerala in South India, to China in the East, Indonesia in the Far East and in the west to Brazil and South America. The ancestors of Jalaluddin Rumi were one such family which moved from Iraq to Balkh in Afghanistan as a part of this trend.
The scholars who moved from the center of this controversy, which was Iraq, to distant land had the time and the peace to ponder about the errors of the past. This gave them a fresh and more correct understanding of religion and society. They were popular with the people and the rulers for their role in stimulating in them their innate connection with God and by their sincere advice in their worldly affairs.
Once Khwarazm Shah of Balkh who was an admirer of Sh. Muhammad BahauddinWalad, father of Jalaluddin Rumi, went to meet Bahauddin and seek some advice and blessings. When he saw a huge crowd of supporters surrounding him he expressed his surprise at the huge popularity of the Shaikh. One person in his entourage who was jealous of the Shaikh’s popularity told the Shah: If you do not pay attention to this and plan your own protection this Shaikh will revolt against you. The King who had not thought of this possibility asked this person to suggest him the remedy. The King was told that he should send the keys of the treasury and the fort to the Shaikh with the message that you rule over the heart of the people and I only have these keys, better you take them also. Shaikh got the hint and told the Shah that his job is not to rule but to help the people in knowing their Creator and to live by His laws and that he will be leaving the domain of his country the following Friday quietly without any announcement lest there should be some turmoil. Thus, Rumi’s family left to the quiet of Asia Minor.
Another reason given for Rumi’s family’s move from Balkh is that he knew of the impending attack by the armies of Genghis Khan. Following is a brief history of the reason why he thought that the Mongols attack was imminent.
Khwarazms were from the Tartar tribe of Turkic people who were supposed to be descendants of the third son of Noah Named Japheth. Mongols were the other tribe of this Turkic race. Both the Mongols and Khwarazm established their independent empires in the 2nd Millennium with Khwarazm extending their empire into Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. They had good ties with each other because of their common Turkic heritage. Another reason for the Mongols desire’ to be friendly with Khwarazm despite their Muslim faith was that Genghis Khan wanted to be friendly with the neighboring dynasty of Khwarazm instead of distant Baghdad. But both Abbasids and Khwarazm wanted to use Mongols to strengthen their rule. When Khwarazm Shah found that an Abbasid emissary was in a business caravan from Mongolia transiting his country, he ordered the whole caravan to be killed. This incited Genghis Khan and his children to attack and conquer Khwarazm dynasty and Baghdad both. The Khwarazm dynasty fell without any resistance because Khwarazm Shah wanted to give a free passage to the Mongols to plunder the rich Baghdad. Some say that it was the strategy of Khwarazm to keep the poor people of his land safe from Mongols. Baghdad fell later to Mongols leading to a bloodbath the like of which history has never seen. This bloodbath changed the Mongols and the progeny of Genghis to embrace Islam much the same way as victorious Ashoka embraced Buddhism after being moved by the bloodbath at the battle field.
Thus, destiny brought young Jalaluddin Rumi to Konya who was the master of the script of Islam and its interpretation to Konya where he met his spiritual Guru Shams Tabrizi RA who was adept in the spirit of religion. The meeting of these two men resuscitated the edifice of religion with its true spirit. This resuscitation was essential to the march of civilization under the Mongols who later became Muslims and established the dynasties of Ottomans in Turkey, Safavis in Iran and Mughals in South Asia.
A brief but intense interaction between Rumi and Shams Tabrizi changed Rumi from the position of a flamboyant preacher and a jurist to a poet of great intensity. Shams Tabrizi washed the pride and prejudice of knowledge from the heart and mind of Rumi using the Elixir of Love. Rumi left the popularity and position of the pulpit and the bench from which he was giving edicts that dictated people’s life and became a poet touching their hearts and their lives.
When Jalaluddin met his mentor, Shams Tabrizi, Shams asked him: What is the purpose of your struggle and all your learning? Jalaluddin replied: To discipline yourself and to know the law pertaining to the issue that you face. Shams, quoting a couplet from Sanai, said: The purpose of your acquiring knowledge is flawed and is worse than ignorance. Jalaluddin was taken aback. Shams further said: Your learning should lead you to know what is known.
Shams’ definition of learning looks silly at the outset, but if one ponders over it he would know its reality. When Jalaluddin learnt the reality of this statement in the company of Shams breaking his connections with what he was involved in, Shams lifted Jalaluddin from the level of logos of theology, logic and law to the Gnosis of God and values which are eternal. One may read my article “Debate on Interpretation of Scriptures” (PL June 3, 2016). Thus, Shams made this locally known speaker and jurist the world- renowned poet “Maulana Rum”.
This transformation of Maulana Rumi was the need of the land of Konya in Asia Minor which had no dearth of practitioners of Orphic faith, sophists, jurists, theologians and brilliant orators. They were all yearning to understand the reality behind their abandonment and their indulgence, their joys and their sufferings. Their actions and their thoughts were confounded by the words and verbiage. The politics of the tribe of Marwan, the militarism of the tribe of Hajjaj and the religion of the Mullahs of the Royal Courts that was practiced in the Muslim world for the past six centuries was not suitable for the people of the world who were stepping into modernity and post-modernity. It was essential to understand the spirit of the scripture in its word which they had lost by ignoring the yearning of the spirit in taking care of the pleasures of the body and were struggling to find it. Destiny prepared and planted Rumi at the junction of Europe and Asia to clear the confusion that had plagued the region and to give an understanding of the common values of mankind and the truth of prophetic teachings to the people of the world. One may read my article “Role of Islam in Rumi’s Influence on March of Civilization” (Pakistan Link dated March 17, 2017).
To understand the value of the Masnavi which Maulana Rumi wrote as a poet one should know what the scores of Christian monks and priests who accompanied his long funeral journey told the ruler of Qaunia, MueenudDeenParwana. When he asked them as to why they were attending this funeral which marched for a full day to reach its resting place they said: We understood the reality of the prophets of the past and understood the reality of genuine Sufis through him (Tareekh e Dawath Vol 1)
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