ABSTRACT
Rumi received his early education from his father, a good scholar, who recorded his meditations in a book entitled M aarif; the influence of his instruction and writings is apparent in Rumi’s own work. Shordy after Baha’ al-Din’s death his old friend from Balkh, Burhan al-Din Muhaqqiq of Tirmidh arrived in Qonia, and found Rumi established in the favour of the Saljuq Sultan ‘Ala* al-Din Kai-Qubad, preaching in public in succession to his father. Burhan al-Din at once undertook to initiate the young zealot into the inner mysteries of §ufi discipline and doctrine; when he died in 1240, Rumi ‘in turn assumed the rank of Shaykh and thus took the first, though probably unpremeditated, step towards forming a fraternity of the disciples whom his ardent personality attracted in ever-increasing numbers.’ We are told that during his discipleship to Burhan al-Din, and on his advice, Rumi went to study further in Aleppo, whence he proceeded to Damascus for perhaps four years (the eminent Murcian theosophist Ibn ‘Arabi died there in 1240) before returning to Qonia to attend his teacher in his last days.
