Hidden in Plain Sight

The book is an examination of the apocryphal text known as Book Seven of the Mathnawi, attributed to Rumi, which has never before been studied. Why was this text was added to Rumi’s Mathnawi? What were its implications in the Mevlevi centers in 17th-century Ottoman society or in Persian speaking societies in India and Iran? The author has located and analyzed different manuscript versions of the text, discusses possible authors and motives behind its composition: Was Book Seven added on the Indian subcontinent or in the Ottoman Empire? One important aspect of the text being interpreted as Book Seven was a great anxiety over whether Rumi's Mathnawi had been incomplete, an assumption made by Rumi's own son Sultan Valad as well as by Sufis in India and the Ottoman lands. In addition to a literary examination of Book Seven of Rumi’s Mathnawi, the study also sheds light on religio-political conflicts between various social groups in Ottoman society in which this text played a major role. By examining Isma'il Anqaravi’s (d.1631) introduction on his commentary, which presents a detailed account of his debate with Mevlevi and Khalveti Sufis and shaykhs, I argue that Anqaravi claimed authority as the ultimate commentator and Mathnawi-reciter among the Mevlevi Sufis, a claim that was bolstered by his closeness to Sultan Murad IV (d. 1049/1640).