The Metaphysics of the Nay: Sound, Breath, and Relational Being in Avni Konuk’s Commentary on Rūmī

This article examines Ahmed Avni Konuk’s Mesnevi-i Şerif Şerhi, his extensive late Ottoman commentary on Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s Mathnawī, focusing on how the nay (reed flute) becomes a central interpretive key linking sound, breath, and divine manifestation. Using the opening verses of the Mathnawī as a point of departure, the study traces how the nay develops in Konuk’s commentary from a poetic motif into a broader metaphysical and cosmological principle. Through a close hermeneutic reading, it explores how themes such as divine breath (nefes-i rahmani), listening (sem'), and resonance shape Konuk’s account of creation as an unfolding process grounded in relation and continual animation. Beyond its contribution to the study of late Ottoman Sufi metaphysics, the article situates Konuk’s commentary within a growing body of scholarship that examines how classical Islamic intellectual traditions can inform contemporary discussions on the relationship between humanity, nature, and the sacred. Konuk’s interpretation of the Mathnawī—particularly his integration of sound, breath, and natural imagery—provides a metaphysical vocabulary that aligns with, yet is not reducible to, these contemporary concerns. While the article does not propose an ecological reading in a strict sense, it identifies conceptual elements in Konuk’s synthesis that may be of interest to ongoing interdisciplinary debates on interdependence, embodiment, and the more-than-human world.