FIRST EDITION OF THE MESNEVI

As time passed the life full of love and ecstasy of the great mystic Mevlana Celaleddin was approaching its spiritual culmination. His disciple Celebi Husameddin was closely following this progress of his beloved Mevlana. He longed and felt it his duty to propagate Mevlana's perfection, to draw the curtains hiding this sun of love and enlightenment, and illuminate the whole world with its beams. At the same time the Great Divan had at last been completed made up of the odes written by Mevlana.

But now Mevlana could create a more mature and satisfying work. His extensive knowledge, technique, and mastery of the art of poetry and ability to compose a poem without pondering at length on rhythm and meter would now allow him to write such a master work. Husameddin was just waiting for an opportunity to tell Mevlana about this idea.

One day this opportunity arose. Mevlana was wandering around a garden through which a stream was flowing, with Celebi, and reciting poetry. Just at the right time Celebi opened the subject:

— My sultan! You have composed many odes. The Divan has grown large. Now if you could compose a book of poetry in the mesnevi measure (rhyming couplets) you would become the travelling companion of all ashiks (a lover of God who traveled from place to place and sang or recited poetry). From now on instead of speaking the words of others they would fill their spirits with your work.

Mevlana was already prepared for this. With a smile he took a piece of paper from the folds of his turban and handed it to Celebi Husameddin. On this paper were written the first eighteen couplets of the Mesnevi,

— Read it! He said, and Celebi began to read it aloud: Listen, how can I complain about the sound of the ney,
How can I grieve for the partings?

Since I left the busy world Men and women weep for my suffering

I want a heart rent with longing

I want to lament and pour out my troubles.

And the last of these eighteen couplets is this; can the raw understand the cooked? I had to speak briefly and that is that
As Husameddin Celebi read he became exuberant. Tears ran down his cheeks. After he finished reading he knelt in front of Mevlana and kissed his hand:

— My Mevlana! O my sultan who has no equal! I implore you from my heart. May there be no end to these verses, may they extend to infinity, and may volumes be filled.

— Celebi, if you consent to write them I will recite...

— I am ready, we can begin right away, Celebi replied, Mevlana was pleased. He said to Celebi:

— Then write Husameddin-.. Husameddin, who was raised with truth, the sun of truth, write...

Then they began to write the Mesnevi. Day and night, on the road and in the vineyards Mevlana recited the poetry without stopping to rest. With iove and ardour Celebi Husameddin wrote without tiring. The volumes were being filled. When almost at the sixth volume the number of couplets was 25, 618, Celebi Husameddin only kept up with Mevlana with difficulty, he composed the verse so fluently as if it Were a flowing stream. Whenever Meviana stopped for a while Celebi would read the draft to Mevlana and they would make small corrections. Upon completion the draft was rewritten and arranged into six volumes. However this first copy has not survived. The oldest edition in existence is a handwritten manuscript, the earliest to have survived to the present day among the thousands of copies of the Mesnevi which were made. It is exhibited in Konya Mevlana Museum, This manuscript book is not only a first edition of Mevlana's Mesnevi, but a Seljuk period masterpiece of the art of writing and gilded illumination. Its value cannot be measured in millions.
According to an inscription in the book it was written in 1278, 5 years after Mevlana's death and completed in the month of November. It was inscribed by the calligrapher and Mevlevi dervish Mehmed son of Abdullah from Konya, and decorated by an artist called Mevlevi Muhlis. The title pages of each volume are gilded from top to bottom and the other pages arranged in four columns, each page made of silk paper. Its binding is a work of art in its own right.
The gilded pages shine as they did when the works was written 700 years ago.

It is recorded at the end of the book that this copy of the Mesnevi was inspected by Celebi Husameddin and Mevlana's son Sultan Veled, who pronounced it faithful to the original copy.

There are many manuscript book in the world's museums, there for their age, or because they are a single edition, or for their artistic value. But none of them can be compared to this edition in the Mevlana Museum, for the following reasons:

1 — This work is that of Mevlana Celaleddin, one of the world's great men. His works have taken their place among the world's classic literature, and have been translated into many languages, and this is a first edition of his greatest work the Mesnevi.

2 — It is one of the finest examples of the Seljuk period art of decoration.

3 — Not only its decoration, but also the paper on which it is written, the writing and the binding are examples of the finest craftsmanship. Each of its pages are a work of art in themselves.