The Cultural Characteristics of the Mevlana Period of the Selchuk Dynasty

Mevlana Jelalleddin Rumi(1207~1274) is not only a great poet and philosopher but a mystic and sprituallt touched man during the Selchuk Period. In particular, his era was full of agony and chaos following the series of such wars as the Crusader`s attacks to Muslim world, Mongol`s massacre against Muslims and even internal power games in the Selchuk Empire. Mevlana was born in 1207 in Balh of modern Afghanistan. With advent of Mongol expedition to Central Asia, his family with many other Muslim scholars immigrated to Konya of Selchuk capital where they could more concentrated and exerted their best efforts to save miserable peoples through mystic meditation and other spiritual approaches. Of course Mevlana was educated int two major university centers of the time, Allepo and Damascus. He was a well known rounded scholars who had accumulated much theological and scientific knowledge. He had such commanded of Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Greek that he could write poetry in all four languages. The 13th century in Central Asia, non-Arabic speaking land, Arabic written Quranic verses were almost impossible for the peoples in the region to understand and to grasp the messages of Allah, the Almighty. The religion of Islam was almost monopolized by certain limited intellectual class who understand Arabic and have Islamic knowledge. At the very critical juncture which need more spiritual guidance and moral support than any other time, people on the street were wandering and driven to hopelessness. So, Mevlana showed peoples new and clear roads to reach Allah through mystic approach, whirling dance called sema. In Mevlana`s vision, there were two universes which coincided in Man. The inner world was like an endless infinite ocean, which could only be felt and seen with the eyes of the heart, which the outer world was but like the passing foam which appears on the surface of the waves emendating from that ocean. In a sense, one could call his vision that of Unity of Consciousness. This vision impelled Mevlana to transcend all differences and prejudices, all the boundaries and time, and formed the basis of his immense tolerance and of his real and deep humanism. This is why in last part of Selchuk Empire where all the science and thought were respected based on multi-culturalism, Mevlana`s vision could be spread and gave immense impact to the peoples of his time and all the peoples in the world even at the present moment