After the birth of Sultān Veled at Larenda, Jelāl’s father was invited to Qonya by the Seljūqi king, ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn Kayqubād, where he founded a college, and where he died in A.D. 1231. The king built a marble mausoleum over his grave, with this date inscribed on it. The king himself died, five years later, in A.D. 1236. At his father’s death, Jelāl went to Aleppo and Damascus for several years to study, and then returned to Qonya, where he was appointed professor of four separate colleges. His reputation for learning and sanctity became very great. But before this journey to Damascus, he appears to have paid a visit to Larenda. For, a former pupil of his father’s at Balkh, who had become a great saint and anchoret, came to Qonya to seek Jelāl, and was the cause of his returning from Larenda to the capital. This was the Sheykh and Seyyid Burhānu-’d-Dīnn, who became Jelāl’s spiritual teacher for some time. The dates given do not agree in the various branches of Eflākī’s compilation; for he here gives a period of nine years’ spiritual study at Qonya under Burhān. After Burhān’s instructions and departure from Qonya to Qaysariyya, where he died, and after Jelāl’s studies at Aleppo and Damascus, with his subsequent return to Qonya and appointment to the four colleges, another great saint came to visit Jelāl at this latter city. This was Shemsu-’d-Dīn of Tebrīz, for whom Jelāl conceived a very great friendship. He is mentioned in the Mesnevī several times in very high terms. He appears to have been exceedingly aggressive and domineering in his manner. This roused a fierce animosity against him, which at length broke out in a tumult. Jelāl’s eldest son, ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn, was killed or mortally hurt in this disturbance. The local police seized Shemsu-’d-Dīn in consequence, and he was never again seen alive by his friends. Jelāl went himself to Damascus, in hopes that he might have been sent away, or have got away, privately. But the effort was fruitless. Later traditions cause his corpse to have been recovered and buried at Qonya, differing, however, as to the place of interment. When Jelāl found that he required assistance in conducting all the various duties that fell on him, he selected first for that office his former fellow-student-, Sheykh Salāhu-’d-Dīn Ferīdūn, surnamed Zer-Kūb (the Goldbeater), from his business. He assisted Jelāl for about ten years, and died in A.D. 1258.