ИСТИНА

This paper focuses on the multicultural and multi-confessional environment of thirteenth-century Konya. The author will analyze Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s conceptions of Judaism and Christianity, developed in his poetical and theological writings. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s stance towards Jews and Christians in his Sūfī writings was influenced by his role as teacher and admonisher. His religious discourses are extremely polarized and dichotomous, representing the dualistic struggle between true religious knowledge, discovered and transmitted by the Sūfī teacher, and all sorts of religious ignorance. In this dichotomous scheme, “the wrong side” may have been represented equally by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Zoroastrians. At the same time, only the specific practices of individual followers of these religions were questioned, not the ontological principles of the three religions. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī instead mainly focuses on the universal and ultimate truth that is common to all confessions. This universal truth may appear to an inexperienced outward observer quite contradictory and complex, but in its essence has no contradictions. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī often calls the universal truth the one-colorness of many colors. This truth is reproduced by prophets regardless of their creed, but the followers of these various prophets may or may not be aware of it. Further on, the author will place Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s activities and teaching into the ethnic and religious context of the Konya of the time. By means of a prosopographical analysis of Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Armenian sources of the time, the author outlines the role of the Jewish and Christian communities in thirteenth-century Konya. Finally, the impact of Orthodox Greeks and Jews on Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s personal life will be discussed in detail.