Rumi Chronology
Historical context
A source-conscious timeline separates secure dates from approximate or disputed stages.
Evidence and tradition
Baha al-Din Walad’s departure is difficult to date exactly, although the family was in Konya by about 1229.
People and place
Shams became pivotal in the 1240s; Husam al-Din later played a central role in writing down the Masnavi.
Text and transmission
Its first book was completed around 1262 and collaboration resumed in 1263–64.
Why it matters
Rumi died in 1273; Husam al-Din succeeded him until 1284, after which Sultan Walad became central to the organized Mawlawiyya.
Sources and further reading
Historical context
Rumi’s life and works belong to the learned, devotional and literary world of thirteenth-century Persian-speaking Anatolia. A useful account therefore distinguishes evidence close to his lifetime from later Mevlevi memory and from modern popular retellings. This distinction does not make later tradition unimportant; it clarifies what kind of claim each source can support.
Text and transmission
Rumi’s corpus is not a single kind of document. The Masnavi is a six-book didactic poem of roughly 26,000 verses; the Divan is lyric poetry; Fihi ma fihi preserves material compiled from notes made in his teaching circle. Letters, sermons and later biographies answer different historical questions. Genre and transmission should therefore be considered before a passage is used as direct biography.
Interpretive depth
A deeper reading follows images and stories beyond isolated quotations. In the Masnavi, narrative can break into direct address, commentary or another embedded story; this movement is part of the teaching method. Comparing parallel themes across the Masnavi, Fihi ma fihi and the Divan can reveal both continuity and differences in voice, audience and literary purpose.