The commentary and the doctrine of love in the Sharh-i Jazīra-i Mathnawī (analysis and text)

Many commentaries have been written on the Mathnawî-i Maʿnawî authored by Mawlânâ Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî. Yûsuf Sîneçâk, however, selected certain couplets from Rûmî's Mathnawî and composed a work entitled Cezîret al-Mathnawî. The Cezîret al-Mathnawî, consisting of three hundred and sixty-six couplets selected by Sîneçâk, was commented upon by five authors. Commentators such as Abdullâh Bosnevî, Cevrî Ibrâhîm, Ilmî Dede, Abdülmecîd Sivasî, and Shaykh Gâlib produced commentaries on this work in both verse and prose under different titles. This study deals with the commentaries written on the final section of the Cezîret al-Mathnawî, entitled Der-Beyân-i ʿIshq u Mastî ("On Love and Ecstasy"). The section devoted to the interpretation of love consists of thirty-four couplets. Each commentator presented the couplets in red headings and provided explanations beneath them. Themes such as the sorrow, joy, and grief of love; the qualities expected of lovers; the ways of attaining true love; the states of the beloved; and the martyrdom of those who die in the path of love are treated as a doctrine of love, supported by Qurʾânic verses, hadiths, and aphorisms. First, translations of these thirty-four Persian couplets selected from the Mathnawî were made. Then, the commentaries were examined comparatively in terms of the commentators' perspectives on love. The commentaries were read from manuscript copies, transcribed, and rendered into Latin script. Postgraduate theses were also utilized. In the introduction, detailed information about the study and previous research on the subject is provided, followed by a brief account of the Cezîret al-Mathnawî and the lives of the commentators. Subsequently, the section Der-Beyân-i ʿIshq u Mastî is analyzed in terms of form and content. Finally, the texts of the commentaries on the Cezîret al-Mathnawî are presented, and the study is concluded with an evaluation and conclusion.