Rūmī's Father Gives a Sermon in the Qāni˓ī Cemetery of Konya

Rūmī's father, Bahā˒ al-Dīn (d. 1231), a revered scholar and a man of
great sanctity, reportedly worked many miracles in Konya. Seljuk Sultan
˓Āla˒ al-Dīn Kaiqubād I (r. 1219–1237) once ordered him to give a sermon
in Konya's cemetery that proved to be so moving that the dead came out
of their graves. At another point, shown here, pairs of hands emerge
from the graves, their owners proclaiming, "Amen." The incident is not
included in the original Persian text; it was added by the Turkish
translator. Bahā˒ al-Dīn, dressed in green, sits on a tall gold chair;
in the front is a dark-skinned dervish with burn marks (showing ardor
for the beloved) and two men, seen from the back, embracing. Some
figures wear the distinctive tall, honey-colored, felt hats of the
Mevlevī order.

This miniature is part of a sixteenth-century manuscript account of the
life and miracles of the Persian poet and mystic known as Rūmī. It is a
Turkish translation of an abridged version of the original
fourteenth-century Persian account by the dervish known as Aflākī.