Rumi's Timeline & Chronology

 

• 1152 - Birth of Bahâ al-Din Valad (Rumi’s father)

• 1200 - Bahâ al-Din teaching in Vakhsh up until about 1210 writing his spiritual diaries, the Ma’âref.

• 1205 - ‘Alâ al-Din is born, Rumi’s older brother, to Mo’mene Khâtun and Bahâ al-Din

• 1207 - Rumi is born to Mo’mene Khâtun and Bahâ al-Din

• 1208 - Dispute with Qâzi of Vakhsh

• 1212 - Valad family living in Samarqand; Khwârazmshâh lays siege to the city

• 1216 - Valads leave Khorasan for Baghdad for a host time (less than a month) and then Mecca in March 1217 to perform the Hajj at Mecca

• 1217 - Traveled from Mecca north and stay in Damascus (Syria) and then onto Malatya in eastern Turkey, in the summer of 1217

• 1218 - Valads leave between November 1217 and March 1218 to Âqshahr near Erzincan and say for four years

• 1221 - Mongols take Balkh

• 1222 - Valads in Lârende (Karaman) for seven years

                    Death of Mo’mene Khâtun, Rumi’s mother (between 1222 and 1229)

• 1224 - Marriage of Rumi to Gowhar Khâtun

• 1225 - Birth of ‘Alâ al-Din, Rumi’s first son

• 1226 - Birth of Sultan Valad (April 25?) Rumi's son

• 1229 - Family settles permanently in Konya (perhaps first came to the city as early as 1221-2)

• 1231 - Death of Bahâ al-Din (February 23)

• 1232 - Arrival of Borhân al-Din in Konya (one of Bahâ al-Din’s first disciples and Rumi’s godfather)

                   Borhân in Konya and Kayseri, composing Ma’âref

                   Rumi a student at mainly in Aleppo and also Damascus - religious law and the religious sciences (1232-7)

                   Borhân directs Rumi's spiritual discipline, including seclusion, fasting, and the intensive study and meditation                       of Bahâ al-Din’s Ma’âref

• 1237 - Rumi return to Konya as leader of Bahâ al-Din’s school

• 1240 - Death of Ebn Arabi in Damascus

• 1241 - Death of Borhân al-Din Mohaqqeq in Kayseri

• 1242-43 - Rumi’s wife, Gowhar Khâtun, died while the two boys had already been sent off to Damascus to receive a                      proper education.

                          Rumi remarried to a widow, Kirrâ Khâtun, who bore him a son, Muzzaffar al-Din Amir ‘Alim Chalabi, and a                              daughter, Malikah Khâtun

• 1243 - The Mongols extend their empire to Anatolia

• 1244 - Arrival of Shams in Konya (November 29) - by 1244, wrote his son Sultan Valad in Secret word, Rumi had              ten thousand disciples.

                    During this period, Rumi takes up samâ and composes lyrical poems

• 1246 - Shams quits Konya for Syria (March 11)

                    Rumi stops composing poetry. Resumes with five or six poems after receiving word from Shams

• 1247 - Return of Shams to Konya (April). Joyful parties are held, and Rumi composes new poems

• 1247 - Shams marries Kimiâ (sometimes between October and December)

• 1247-48  - Shams disappears from Konya forever (December 3)

                          At least two trips to Syria or Damascus in search of Shams.

                          Rumi chooses Salâh al-Din Zarkub (the Goldsmith) as his successor/deputy, which meant that he                                        preached and acted for Rumi as a shaykh to the disciples. With the loss of Shams, Rumi regarded Salâh                                al-Din as his new spiritual axis. About eighty poems are dedicated to Salâh al-Din

                          Ghazals composed for Salâh al-Din

• 1258 - Death of Salâh al-Din Zarkub (December 29) after a long and painful illness.

                   Husâm al-Din Chalabi begins his tenure as Rumi’s deputy, his successor. He was Rumi’s disciple since he                           was a very young man. Rumi refers to his Masnavi as “Book of Husâm”. Husâm was Rumi’s amanuensis, he                         wrote down every verse that Rumi composed, recited it back to Rumi, and suggested any revisions.

                  The Mongols conquer Baghdad, the Abbasid capital

• 1262 - ‘Alâ al-Din, Rumi’s eldest son, dies (mid-September)

                The composition of Masnavi begins

• 1264 - Book 2 of Masnavi begins - it’s resumed after a pause on account of the death of Hosamoddin’s wife.

• 1273 - Death of Rumi in Konya (December 17)