Texts of Islam

The Mesnavi and The Acts of the Adepts: The Acts of the A...

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This is a hagiographic biography — a saint's life — drawn from "The Acts of the Adepts," a collection of accounts of Sufi masters translated from Persian in 1881. It traces the lineage and career of Bahā'u-'d-Dīn Veled, a thirteenth-century Islamic scholar and mystic based in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), who is historically significant as the father of the poet Rumi. The narrative follows Bahā'u-'d-Dīn's divinely arranged marriage, his rise to supreme scholarly authority through a mass dream revelation, and his forced exile from Balkh after he publicly condemned the king's court and foretold — with striking accuracy — the Mongol destruction of the city in 1211. The account is notably structured around miraculous episodes: prophetic dreams, posthumous apparitions, and instant death visited on the impious, all serving to establish Bahā'u-'d-Dīn's spiritual authority across a decades-long journey through Baghdad, Mecca, Armenia, and finally Konya in Asia Minor. A distinctive claim running throughout is that Bahā'u-'d-Dīn himself predicted his son Jelāl (Rumi) would surpass him, positioning the father as the necessary precursor to the greater mystic. Readers interested in Sufi hagiographic tradition, the historical backdrop of the Mongol invasions, or the biographical origins of Rumi will find this a dense but concrete primary source.

The Mesnavi and The Acts of the Adepts: The Acts of the A...

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