The Anatolian Philosopher?
We receive quite a lot of emails at this site and the most often asked question is why we are calling Mevlana an Anatolian philosopher. Although we answer almost all email we receive in person, we thought it may be better if we pre-answer that question here to save time to both parties.

Mevlana wrote almost all of his work in Persian (Farsi or Pharsi, the language of Iran), which was the dominating literary and bureaucracy language of that period. His work is part of the school curriculum in Iran as it is in Turkey. So why not call him Iranian?

When someone is born in a different place than where he became famous, it is usually with the latter place that he is associated with. The famous composer George Frideric
Haendel was born in Halle, Germany as a German citizen, but he became famous in England and almost all of his oratorios are in English. Nowadays he is mostly known as an English composer; while his name is spelled in the Anglicized way as Handel he is buried at the Westminster Abbey. Nevertheless, we have specifically refrained calling Mevlana Turkish, although Konya had became and stayed a "Turkish" city soon after Mevlana's death. «more...» Instead, in our home page we say:

Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, the great Anatolian philosopher, poet and the father of the Mevlevi sect [...] was born on 30 September 1207 in Balkh in present day Afghanistan. He died on 17 December 1273 in Konya in present day Turkey.

Naturally, in 700 years the world's political map changed considerably. Countries that rule large parts of the world cease to exist (e.g. Ottoman Empire) and countries that used to cover extensive land shrink to become normal size countries that we expect nowadays (e.g. Great Britain and Iran). If you read the quote above you will see that we use the term "present day" next to the countries in where the two cities important to Mevlana's life are mentioned are situated. That is because neither Balkh, his birthplace, nor Konya, the place he spent most of his adulthood and where he wrote all his works are under the jurisdiction of the same countries as when he was alive. Balkh was a city of the vast Persian Empire then and Konya was a city under the jurisdiction of the Seljuks who does not exist anymore.

On the other hand, it is a historical fact that "Rumi" simply meant Anatolian back in time and that is why Mevlana is called Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi. Rumi, from the word Roma, was loosely used for the land of the old Eastern Roman Empire. Even the Seljuk sultanate that ruled Konya while Mevlana was living there was called "Sultanate of Rum." «more... and more...» It is this fact that made us call Mevlana Anatolian. There has never been a country called Anatolia. Calling Mevlana Anatolian, is the same as calling him Rumi. It is like calling someone European or African.

That is what we thought, but judging from the emails we keep receiving we were wrong in our assumption. We will continue to stand by our term "the great Anatolian philosopher," but at least we try to show you, the reader that we have no intention to "steal" Mevlana's heritage from any country or race. That is against Mevlana's philosophy and it will be the most wrong thing to do for the descendants of Mevlana.

In his own words:

"Come, come over, more over, how long this brigandage? As you are me and I am you. How long this discrimination of you and I?
 
We are light of GOD! Why this separation among us? Why light escapes from light? We are all from the same yeast, our brains and heads too. But under this bowed sky we see double…"

Mevlana belongs to everyone.

Celebi Family

PS. May we suggest you to also have a look at this authoritative explanation on the subject by Dr. Ibrahim Gamard.
 

* Alternative spellings: Mawlana, or Mowlana, and Jalal Al-Din, or Jalaluddin