Shams-i Tabrizi

The Sufi after whose companionship the course of Mevlânâ Celâleddîn-i Rûmî's life changed; the mystic whom the Mevlevî tradition regards as the "sun of truth".

He was born around 582 (1186) in Tabriz. His full name was Muhammed b. Ali b. Melikdâd Tebrîzî. His father, Ali b. Melikdâd (also called Melik Dâvûd), was a cloth merchant who came from the town of Bezer in Khorasan and settled in Tabriz. In his youth he followed a hidden spiritual path; he was trained by the sheikh Ebû Bekr-i Selebâf, who lived in asceticism near Tabriz and earned his living by weaving baskets. The sources record that he remained about fourteen years in Selebâf's service before setting out on his travels.

Before meeting Mevlânâ he led a life of extensive travel reaching Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo, Kayseri, Aksaray, Sivas, Erzurum and Erzincan; he met the renowned scholars and Sufis of his age, foremost among them Evhadüddîn-i Kirmânî, Burhâneddin Muhakkık-ı Tirmizî and, in Damascus, Ibn al-'Arabî. According to the sources he occupied himself for fourteen months in Aleppo with seclusion and spiritual exercise before turning towards Anatolia.

The sources differ as to whether their first encounter with Mevlânâ took place in Damascus or in Aleppo. According to one account Mevlânâ, seeing Şems in a merchant's dress, addressed him: "O appraiser of the world and of meanings!", and at these words Şems fell into spiritual absorption. The decisive meeting was the second: according to Eflâkî, Şems arrived in Konya on 26 Jumada II 642 (29 November 1244), lodged at a caravanserai and put to Mevlânâ a question comparing the Prophet Muhammad with Bâyezîd-i Bistâmî. Mevlânâ's answer, concerning the endlessness of the Prophet's spiritual thirst, affected Şems profoundly.

After this encounter the two companions entered a retreat of three months in the house of Selâhaddîn-i Zerkûb; during this period, passed in fasting and samâ', Mevlânâ abandoned his duties of teaching and preaching and spent all his time with Şems. This aroused hostility among the scholars and people of Konya, who saw themselves deprived of Mevlânâ's public ministry. Under pressure from the townspeople Şems left Konya in 643 (1245-46) for Damascus; it is related that Mevlânâ sent letters after him in Arabic and Persian verse. Returning after about a year, Şems married Kimyâ Hatun, Mevlânâ's adopted daughter. Seven days after Kimyâ Hatun's death he disappeared a second time, in Sha'bân 644 (December 1246), returning again to Damascus; Mevlânâ sent Sultan Veled after him with a delegation, and Şems was found at Cebelisâlihiyye, where Ibn al-'Arabî also resided, and brought back to Konya.

On 8 Sha'bân 645 (8 December 1247) he disappeared altogether. More than one account exists of his fate; these are given below in the Multiple Viewpoints section.

His Circle of Influence — No chain of succession and no independent order traces back to Şems; his relationship with Mevlânâ has been understood as a companionship between two spiritual peers, transcending the conventional master-disciple structure. His influence, on the other hand, pervades the whole Mevlevî tradition: Mevlânâ's Dîvân-ı Kebîr is filled with poems praising Şems with titles such as shams al-haqq wa'd-dîn and nûr-i mutlak, and the divan is known by his name. After Şems's disappearance Mevlânâ entered deeper spiritual states, and his greatest work, the Mesnevî, was written after this period. Sultan Veled records that Mevlânâ found the ma'nâ of Şems in Selâhaddîn-i Zerkûb, the two spiritual stations merging "like milk mingling with sugar".

His Poetry and Sufi Line — At the centre of Şems's line stand divine love and love of the human being; he sees the path as a way to be understood together with the sharia and the reality, counts melâmet (blame-bearing) a spiritual station, and lives samâ' as a state — it was he who taught Mevlânâ the known form of samâ'. He rejects bare knowledge: according to the source, having tasted the companionship of God's friends he erased all his learning from his notebook, stripped himself of the rational and transmitted sciences, and preferred the realm of tecrîd, tefrîd and tevhid. He subjected the sheikhs and scholars he met to a severe examination of their sincerity; it was the fruit of this attitude that, seeing Mevlânâ's spiritual maturity, he bound himself to him by companionship rather than by discipleship.

His Works — Şems's teaching lives in the collection called Makālât-ı Şems-i Tebrîzî; the work is also known as Hırka-i Şems and Esrâr-ı Şemseddîn-i Tebrîzî. It is stated that this collection of his sayings, conversations and anecdotes may have been compiled by Sultan Veled or by Mevlânâ himself. Its oldest manuscript is in the Library of the Mevlânâ Museum in Konya (no. 2154). Translations by Mehmet Nuri Gençosman into Turkish and by William Chittick into English (2004) have been published.

His Tomb and Complex — The place of his grave is not certain. Eflâkî relates that his body was thrown into a well and later recovered by Sultan Veled and buried near Emîr Bedreddin; the shrine in Konya rests on this account. Other sources place his grave in Tabriz, in Khoy (Iran) or in Multan (Pakistan). The source states that no historical record establishes his final resting place.