From Mevlevi to Mataram: Transmission of sufi values in the concept of musical aesthetics according to Sultan Agung

Sufi aesthetics in the Mevlevi tradition and Mataram Court art illuminate a deep interconnection between spiritual consciousness and artistic expression, underscoring how mystical ideas are transformed into aesthetic experiences through sound, movement, and symbolism. The Mevlevi order, inspired by Jalal al-Din Rumi’s Mathnawi, embodies a synthesis of poetry, music, and ritual performance to attain divine unity through the harmony of form and spirit. Meanwhile, the Mataram Court, during the reign of Sultan Agung (1613–1645), developed a comparable aesthetic philosophy in which musical compositions (gendhing), literary forms, and performative arts, such as wayang, were interwoven with mystical and cosmological meanings. Although previous research has examined Rumi’s Mathnawi and Javanese Gendhing literature independently, few studies have explored the interplay between their respective aesthetic traditions. This study explores possible aesthetic correspondences between Mevlevi practices in Anatolia and the artistic system of the Mataram Court, emphasizing how Sufi principles particularly the notions of tawhid (unity) and fana’ (self-annihilation) were reinterpreted within Javanese palace cosmology. The research employs an art historical and comparative analytical method, combining textual interpretation of Mathnawi and Gendhing literature with musical analysis of gamelan rebab practices and symbolic readings of wayang performances, particularly Gendhing Sunyaruri. Primary and secondary data were obtained through comprehensive literature review and hermeneutic analysis of sources on Sufism, Islamic aesthetics, and seventeenth-century Javanese culture. The findings do not suggest a direct historical transmission from the Mevlevi order in Anatolia to the Mataram Court. Rather, they demonstrate how comparable Sufi aesthetic values including tawhid, fana’, quietness, love, and spiritual pedagogy were articulated and creatively localized within two distinct historical and cultural traditions. In the Mataram context, art functioned simultaneously as a pedagogical tool, a symbolic language of divine order, and a medium of royal legitimation, merging Islamic mysticism with indigenous metaphysical systems. By revealing these interwoven layers of meaning, the study contributes to broader discourses on Islamic and comparative aesthetics, positioning the Mataram Court as a vital locus of cross-cultural synthesis and a significant contributor to the spiritual and artistic identity of the Indonesian archipelago.