Molla Fenârî ve Bir Usul Metni Olarak Şerhu Dîbâceti’l-Mesnevî

Rumi’s Mathnaw¢ Ma’naw¢ is undoubtedly one of the most popular Sufi texts. The first commentary made by an Ottoman scholar on this work was Molla Fanarý’s Sharh D¢båcat al-Mathnaw¢. This concise treatise, which is a commentary on the original Arabic preface of the first volume of al-Mathnaw¢, provides contemporary readers with a perspective as to how to understand Rumý’s text. This paper aims to analyse Fanarý’s intellectual identity and his place in Sufi tradition, as well as his view of al-Mathnaw¢ as a book about the roots and principles al-usul of religion al-dýn . One conclusion that stems from Fanarý’s comments is that al-Mathnaw¢ cannot be properly understood without taking all the Islamic intellectual heritage, i.e., jurisprudence, theology, philosophy as well as Sufism, into consideration