Sufi works that are the source of Vehbî-i Yemânî's commentary on Mesnevî

Abstract

Vehbi-i Yemani's book Kitâb-ı Rûhânî Fî Şerh-i Mesnevî-i Muhtasar-ı Nûrânî is based on Mevlana's Mesnevi-i Manevi. It is a mixed verse-prose commentary written in the 17th century. The work includes the commentary of the first 143 couplets of the Mesnevi, which also includes a part of the story "The Sultan and the Sick Concubine". In this respect, it can be included among the Turkish commentaries made to a part of the Mesnevi in the class of commentary classifications. However, neither the author nor the commentary on the Mesnevi have been included in the relevant literature in almost all of the studies carried out in this field so far. For this reason, it is aimed to bring both the author and his work to the agenda with this study. Vehbi-i Yemani wrote this work with the intention and hope that it would be “ãoñra gelen ve gencÿr u künÿz-ı kemÀl olan iòvÀn-ı nihÀna maømÿn-ı kitÀb ve melfÿô-ı òitÀbı tÀrìò olsun” and “lemèa-i bÀriúa-i duèÀlarına vÀsıùa-i tevessül bulunsun.” As if to serve this purpose, the commentator tried to explain the Mesnevi in the best way; In the commentary of the couplets, he used a very diverse and rich source of citations and quotations from Arabic, Persian and Turkish literature. In this study, the sources of the Mesnevi will be mentioned, due to the importance of knowing the annotated text and the sources of the text in order to understand the nature of the commentary; The commentaries written on the Mesnevi will be mentioned and information will be given about the source range of the commentaries in question. Based on the main purpose of writing the article, detailed review notes will be shared about the Kitâb-ı Rûhânî Fî Şerh-i Mesnevi-i Muhtasar-ı Nûrânî, which will take place in the literature of Vehbi-i Yemani's "Mesnevi Commentaries", and information will be given about the resource network that supports the commentary. and those within the framework of Sufism from these sources will be discussed in detail.