Sultan Walad: In the Footsteps of Rumi and Shams

This book is an introduction to the much neglected life and works of Sultan Walad, 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 favorite disciple, Salah al-Din the goldsmith. After Rumi's death (in 1273), Sultan Walad humbly and patiently accepted the leadership of his father's chosen successor, Chalabi Husam al-Din (for twelve years) and another leading disciple of his father's, Karim al-Din (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 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.