Rumi: From Balkh to Konya

Rumi is listed among the poets born in Balkh, and his father, Baha ud-Din Walad, was a theologian and mystic from there too. Marco Polo later called Balkh "a noble city and a great seat of learning". When the Mongols invaded Central Asia sometime between 1215 and 1220, Baha ud-Din set out westwards with his whole family and a group of disciples. That departure starts the journey to Anatolia that this route follows.

Location precision: The sources name the city, not a house or street; the pin marks the centre of Balkh.

According to a hagiographical account, the young Rumi met the mystic poet Attar in Nishapur. Seeing the father walking ahead of the son, Attar is said to have remarked, "Here comes a sea followed by an ocean." He gave the boy his Asrarnama, a book about the entanglement of the soul in the material world. Attar's tomb lies 6 km west of the city, in an octagonal mausoleum with a tiled dome, built in the 15th century on the order of Ali-Shir Nava'i.

Visitor guidance: The mausoleum stands in a garden west of Nishapur.

The family settled in Karaman for seven years. A local emir built a madrasah to house them. In 1225 Rumi married Gowhar Khatun here, and his mother and brother died here. His mother is buried in the Aktekke Mosque, also called the Mader-i Mevlana Mosque, which Alaeddin Ali Bey built in 1370 to replace the original madrasah.

Visitor guidance: His mother's grave is in the Aktekke (Mader-i Mevlana) Mosque in Karaman.

Rumi and his scribe Hussam were walking through the Meram vineyards outside Konya when Hussam suggested he write a book like Attar's Mantiq ut-Tayr. Rumi took out a piece of paper with the opening eighteen lines of his Masnavi already written. He then spent twelve years dictating its six volumes to Hussam.

Location precision: The account names the Meram vineyards, not a spot; the pin marks Meram, on the edge of Konya.

Rumi died in Konya on 17 December 1273, and local Christians and Jews joined the crowd that bid him farewell. He was buried beside his father in a rose garden given as his father's burial place. The mausoleum, with its turquoise-tiled dome, was completed in 1274. It became a museum on 2 March 1927 and drew 3.4 million visitors in 2019, more than any other museum in Turkey. His epitaph reads: "find it in the hearts of men."

Visitor guidance: The Mevlana Museum in central Konya holds his tomb.