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Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana and Redhouse, James W. (James William), Sir
The reason why the Mesnevī was written is related to have been the following:—
Husāmu-’d-Dīn learnt that several of the followers of Jelāl were fond of studying the Ilāhī-nāma of Sanā’ī, the Hakīm, and the Mantiqu-’t-Tayr of ‘Attār, as also the Nasīb-nāma of the latter.
He therefore sought and found an opportunity to propose that Jelāl should indite something in the style of the Ilāhī-nāma, but in the metre of the Mantiqu-’t-Tayr; saying that the circle of friends would then willingly give up all other poetry, and study that alone.
Jelāl immediately produced a portion of the Mesnevī, saying that God had forewarned him of the wishes of the brethren, in consequence of which he had already begun to compose the work. That fragment consisted of the first eighteen couplets of the introductory verses:—
“From reed-flute hear what tale it tells,
What plaint it makes of absence’ ills,” &c.
It is of the metre Remel, hexameter contracted:
- ‿ - - │ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - ║ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - - │ - ‿ - ║
Jelāl frequently mentions Husām as the cause of the work’s having been begun and continued. In the fourth book he addresses him in the opening couplet:—
“Of Truth, the light; of Faith, the sword; Husāmu-’d-Dīn aye be;
Above the lunar orb has clomb my Mesnevī, through thee.”
And again the sixth book has for its opening verse the following apostrophe:—
“O thou, Husāmu-’d-Dīn, my heart’s true life! Zeal, for thy sake,
I feel springs up in me sixth book hereby to undertake.”
Often they spent whole nights at the task, Jelāl inditing, and Husām writing down his inspirations, chanting it aloud, as he wrote it, with his beautiful voice. Just as the first book was completed, Husām’s wife died, and an interval ensued.
Two years thus passed without progress. Husām married again; and in that year, A.H. 662 (A.D. 1263), the second book was commenced. No other interval occurred until the work was brought to a conclusion. The third couplet of the second book mentions Husām in these terms—
“When thou, of Truth the light, Husāmu-’d-Dīn, thy courser’s rein
Didst turn, descending earthward from the zenith’s starry plain.”
The third, fifth, and seventh books have similar addresses to Husām in their opening verses. His name is also mentioned cursorily in the third tale of the first book.