Sultan Walad : New,
'In the Footseps of Rumi & Shams'
**[A5+] Paperback - 367 pages,
by Hulya Kucuk and
by Ibrahim W. Gamard
Published by Fons Vitae, USA.
Description :
Sultan Walad : 'In the Footseps of Rumi & Shams.' Finally, an introduction in the English language to the much neglected life and works of Sultan Walad Mawlawi, Rumi’s son and interpreter who had extraordinary Sufi teachers: his father, Shams-e Tabrizi, and (after the latter’s final disappearance) his father’s favourite disciple, Salah al-Din the goldsmith.
After Mawlana Rumi’s death (in 1273), Sultan Walad humbly and patiently accepted the leadership of his father’s chosen successor, Chalabi Husam al-Dīn (for twelve years) and another leading disciple of his father’s, Karim al-Dīn (for seven years) before becoming the overall leader of the emerging Mawlawi Order.
During these years he worked to ensure the accuracy of copies of his father’s masterpiece of Islamic Sufism: the Mathnawi, as well as to compose (also in Persian) a diwan (of collected poems), three Mathnawis, and a book of prose—all of which express, in a generally simple manner, the profound mystical wisdom of his father and associates.
This book is scholarly and thorough, as well as readable; it offers a rewarding exposition of the main teachings of Sufism during the era of Rumi and Shams. Topics include ascetic practices, Sufi Saints and Sainthood, striving against the lower self or ego, the Sufi Shaykh, miraculous wonders of the Saints, ecstatic movements inspired by mystical music and poetry, spiritual retreat, mystical secrets, death and the hereafter, and divine Unity.
These are discussed in the context of Sufism as the mystical dimension of Islam, in which Sultan Walad frequently refers to and interprets verses from the Qur’an and Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
Review :
“For far too long, we have seen Rumi as a single solitary giant. Now we rightly see him as a zenith in the mountain range of Muslim spiritual luminaries. The Sultan Walad volume by Gamard and Kucuk helps us see Rumi’s legacy through his son (buried beside him), who did so much to extend his father’s monumental contribution.” —Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University.
Hulya Kucuk is Professor of the History of Sufism at Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya, Turkey. She is the author of The Role of the Bektashis in Turkey’s National Struggle [2002] as well as other books and numerous papers and articles in Turkish. Her articles in English include ”Sufism: the Mysticism Developed by Muslims,” 2007; ”A Brief History of Western Sufism,” 2008; ”Sultan Walad’s Understanding of Sufism: Between Populism and Theosophy,” 2010; “Sultan Walad’s Role in the Foundation of the Mevlevi Sufi Order,” 2012, among others.
Ibrahim W. Gamard is a retired Ph.D. psychologist living in California who joined the Sufi lineage of Rumi, the Mevlevi Order, in 1976. The next year he visited Rumi’s tomb in Konya, Turkey. In 1984, he converted to Islam and completed the Hajj in 1999. Soon after that, he began teaching himself Persian in order to study Rumi’s poetry. In 1985, he began a collaboration with an Afghan scholar, Rawan Farhadi, to translate the nearly 2,000 quatrains attributed to Rumi. This was published as The Quatrains of Rumi [2008].
More books related to Mawlana Rume,
More books on Sufism.
**Dimensions : 23 x 15cm (approx).
