2.1 - In the Seventh/Thirteenth Century

As we have seen in the previous chapters, at the beginning of this seventh century AH, thirteenth century AD, Shaykh Muhyiddin left Andalusia and came to Mecca to remain in the East for the rest of his life. In the East, besides his frequent voyages to Iraq, Egypt and Palestine, he spent most of his years in Damascus and Anatolia, from where his teachings started to diffuse in the Levant and Asia Minor, much faster and wider than their earlier spreading in Andalusia and Maghrib. First, this is because most of his major works were composed in the East, and then due to the political changes that swept the West after he had left it, and the wars and fighting between the various kingdoms and states in Maghrib and Andalusia.

At about the same time when Shaykh Muhyiddin made his journey from Andalusia, in the far Islamic West, to Mecca and the Levant, another journey was also undertaken from Khorrasan, in the far Islamic East, also to Mecca and the Levant, by Bahauddin Walad, the father of Jalaluddin al-Rumi, who later settled in Konya and met with Sadruddin al-Qunawi, the closest disciple to the Greatest Master and his step-son.

For about thirty five years after his master Shaykh Muhyiddin, Sadruddin al-Qunawi spend most of his time in Konya, where he become a close companion of Jalaluddin, and he died only a few months after him, in 673/1274. There are also some narrations that Shaykh Muhyiddin himself had once met Bahauddin Walad, in Damascus, accompanied by his son Jalaluddin who was still a child. The legend says that when he saw them, Ibn al-Arabi said: “Praise be to God! An ocean walking behind a lake!” Although this meeting cannot be confirmed, but Jalaluddin later lived and studied in Damascus for several years during the period when the Greatest Shaykh was living there. However, this does not imply that they met during these years, because Jalaluddin al-Rumi entered the way of Sufism after he met with Shaykh Shamsuddin al-Tabrizi in 642/1244, four years after Shaykh Muhyiddin passed away.

In addition to his close disciples, such as Sadruddin al-Qunawi and Shamsuddin Ibn Sawdakin, who played major roles in transmitting the teachings of their Shaykh through their own books, commentaries and expanding circles of students, other prominent scholars from the far East also started to teach his philosophical and theological doctrines amongst their Sufi schools already established in Khorrasan by many Naqshbandiyyah, Suhrawardiyyah and Kubrawiyyah Shaykhs such as Saaduddin al-Hamawi, Azizuddin al-Nasafi and Awhaduddin al-Kirmani, and their later followers and students.

2.1.1- Awhaduddin Hamid Ibn Abu-l-Fakher al-Kirmani (d. 635/1238)

2.1.2- Shamsuddin Ismail Ibn Sawdakin al-Nuri (d. 646/1248)

2.1.3- Saaduddin Muhammad al-Hamawi (d. 649/1252)

2.1.4- Sadruddin Muhammad al-Qunawi (d. 673/1274)

2.1.5- Fakhruddin Ibrahim al-Iraqi (d. 688/1289)

2.1.6- Afifuddin Suleiman al-Tilimsani (d. 690/1291)

2.1.7- Saiiduddin Muhammad al-Farghani (d. 699/1300)

2.1.8- Muayiduddin al-Jandi (d. 700/1300)

2.1.9- Azizuddin Ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi (d. 700/1300)