Şem’i Efendi was a 16^th century-scholar who translated Sufi works into Turkish and made commentaries on the same. This book aims to introduce his commentary of Mevlana’s Masnawi, and to define its place in the tradition of Ottoman commentary.

Şem’i Efendi’s commentary of the Masnawi is exemplary among contemporary works and later commentaries in that it was the first Turkish commentary to include the entire work, it was written on the order of Sultan Murad III, it included the perception that the knowledge of meratib-i wujud in the terminology of wahdat-al wujud was key in understanding the Masnawi, and finally, in that it referred to more than 80 sources of basic Islamic sciences and Sufi literature and 300 narratives. In particular this commentary, in which the Masnawi’s dimension of acting as a guide for the irshad (path) is brought to the fore, makes it easier to comprehend the Sufi concepts that are hidden behind the symbolism of the Masnawi couplets. This work also sets out the errors of classification in Sufi commentaries on the Masnawi in the form of pre- and post-Ankaravî.
 

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