Jalal al-Din Rumi and his Legacy: Religion, Literature and Culture between Medieval Anatolia and the Persianate World, 13th-14th Centuries

This conference is a partnership between the British Institute at Ankara and British Institute of Persian Studies. It will take place over two days in Ankara. Below you will find a link to register for the conference and schedule for each day. Please note that places are extremely limited due to the venue’s capacity. The conference will be conducted in English.

6 July 2023

9:15-9.30 Welcome and opening remarks

9:30-10.45 Panel 1 The Historical Rumi

Mohammad Estelami (McGill University), The Challenges of Documentation in Sufi Studies

Matthew Lynch (Oregon State University), The Mystical Subject: Examining the Contingency of Identity in the Quest for the Historical Rumi

10.45-11.15 Tea/coffee break

11.15-13.00 Panel 2 Approaching the text of Rumi’s works

Alan Williams (University of Manchester), Mystical Optics: the Perspective of the Masnavi

İklil Selçuk (Özyeğin University), Narratives of economic morality in the writings of Rumi

Ali-Asghar Seyed-Ghorab (Utrecht University), Justification of Sin in Rumi’s Poetry

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.15 Panel 3 Art Historical Approaches to Rumi

Zarifa Alikperova (University of Oxford), The Making of the Shrine of Rumi in Medieval Konya: Architecture, Patronage and the City

Scott Redford (SOAS, University of London), Two Rahles Made for the Shrine of Jalal al-Din Rumi in Konya

15.15-15.45 Tea/coffee

7 July 2023

9.30-10.45 Panel 4: Rumi and Konya in the thirteenth century

Sara Nur Yıldız (Middle East Technical University), The ‘Talisman of the World’: Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi in Seljuk Konya under Mongol Rule

Richard Piran McClary (University of York), A Changing City: Architectural Innovation and Urban Renewal in Konya during the Lifetime of Mevlana

10.45-11.15 Tea/coffee break

11.15-13.00 Panel 5 The religious and literary legacy of Rumi

Roderick Grierson (Near East University), ‘The Turkmen Dervish’: Yunus Emre and Persianate Sufism in Anatolia

Murat İnan (University of Victoria), The “Wondrous Sultan”: How Rumi Captivated and Shaped the Turkish Sufi Communities of Fourteenth-Century Anatolia

Zeynep Oktay (Boğaziçi University), The Masnavi Genre Between Orality and Literacy in Fourteenth Century Anatolia

13.00-14.00 lunch

14.00-15.15 Panel 6: The political legacy of Rumi

Andrew Peacock (University of St Andrews), Rumi Beyond the Mevlevis: His Image in Later Islamic Texts

Maarten Holtzapffel (Utrecht University), Rumi and Religious Pluralism: Mystical Poetry in the Political Theories of Abdolkarim Soroush

15.15-15.45 Tea/coffee