page_title: Sultan Walad
section_title: Ibtida Nama (The book of the beginning)
hierarchical_section_title: Sultan Walad / Written Work / Ibtida Nama (The book of the beginning)
caption_attribution_description: English: A page of Ibtida-Nama (The Book of the Beginning) by Sultan Walid
context_page_description: Baha al-Din Muhammad-i Walad, more popularly known as Sultan Walad was the eldest son of Jalal Al-Din Rumi, Persian poet and Sufi, and one of the founders of the Mawlawiya order.
  Sultan Walad's mother was Jowhar Khatun, daughter of the Lala Sharaf-ud-Din of Samarkand. The marriage took place in 623 A.H., so Sultan Walad was born around 1227.
context_section_description: (Persian: ابتدانامه‎)
  The first Persian poetic verse book of Sultan Walad, in the style Mathnawi (a type of Persian verse)  is the Ibtidā-nāma (The book of the beginning), also called Walad-nāma (The book of Walad) or Mat̲h̲nawī-yi Waladī.   Composed around 1291, it is written in the meter of the Hadiqe of Sanai.  It constitutes an important source for the biographies o Baha al-din (Rumi’s father) and Mawlānā (Rumi) as well as for the early history of the order.  It chronicles the history of the Mawlawwiya order, as well focusing primarily on Rumi.  It also describes the predecessors and successors of Rumi.   One of the students of Rumi, Salah al-Din Zarkub who had a close spiritual relationship with Sultan Walad is also mentioned.  This work provides a first hand account by Rumi’s son who was very close to many of the events described in the book.   Overall, it is a hagiographical book, and promotes an image of Rumi as a miracle-working saint.  It also provides a first hand account of the Mawlawwiya order and the major personages associated with its history, including Baha al-Din, Borhan alDin, Shams, Rumi, Salah al-Din Zarkub, Hosam al-din and finally Sultan Wad.  The work contains over 9000 lines of poetry in Persian.  A first critical edition was produced by the Iranian scholar Jalal al-Din Homai in 1937.  A French translation appeared in 1988 through the efforts of Djamchid Mortazavi and Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch as ‘’La Parole secrete: l’enseignement du maitre Soufi Rumi’’.
caption: A copy of Ibtida Nama in the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia, Bulgaria
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