5.1.15.3 - The Birth of Sadruddin al-Qunawi (Malatya 605/1208)

\%We mentioned in section

efishaq-al-rumi above that Shaykh Muhyiddin met in Mecca with his old friend Majduddin Ishaq al-Rumi, and that he would later marry his widow Jawhar Khatun, whose son Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, would become the closest disciple

Most sources agree that Sadruddin was born somewhere in the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, between 604/1207 and 608/1211. However, Karimuddin Mahmud Ibn Muhammad al-Aqsarayi gives his exact date of birth as 22 Jumada II 605, corresponding to the first of January 1209. Also there is no firm consensus on his birthplace, where some sources give Konya, while others say the he was born in Malatya. In either case, it was in Konya, the Seljuq capital, where he spent much of his childhood, and some of his later life, as well as his final resting place, hence his sobriquet: al-Qunawi, meaning “the Konyan”.

He was seven or eight years old when his father died, which would mean that it was about 613/1216 when he came under Ibn al-Arabi’s direct care. When he was an estimated 14 or 15, he was with Ibn al-Arabi in Egypt when the Shaykh entrusted his education for a time to his friend Awhaduddin al-Kirmani, whom we mention in section

efal-kirmani below. One of the early sources, Manaqib Awhad al-din Kirmani, relates a touching speech made by Ibn al-Arabi as he passed Sadr al-din into Kirmani’s care.