Shams-e-Tabrīzī | |
|---|---|
 Persian miniature of Shams Tabrizi byHossein Behzad, dated 1957 | |
| Born | 1185 |
| Died | 1248 (aged 62–63) |
| Resting place | Khoy,Iran |
| Occupation(s) | Weaver, Poet, Philosopher, Teacher, |
Shams-i Tabrīzī (Persian:شمس تبریزی) orShams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was aPersian[1]Shafi'ite[1]poet,[2] who is credited as the spiritual instructor ofMewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi's poetic collection, in particularDiwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī. Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion inKonya for a period of forty days, before fleeing forDamascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be aUNESCO World Heritage Site.
According toSipah Salar, a devotee and intimate friend of Rumi who spent forty days with him, Shams was the son of the Imam Ala al-Din. In a work entitledManāqib al-'arifīn (Eulogies of the Gnostics), Aflaki names a certain 'Ali as the father of Shams-i Tabrīzī and his grandfather as Malikdad. Apparently basing his calculations onHaji Bektash Veli'sMaqālāt (Conversations), Aflaki suggests that Shams arrived in Konya at the age of sixty years. However, various scholars have questioned Aflaki's reliability.[3]
Shams received his education inTabriz and was a disciple of Baba Kamal al-Din Jumdi. Before meeting Rumi, he apparently traveled from place to place weaving baskets and selling girdles for a living.[4] Despite his occupation as a weaver, Shams received the epithet of "the embroiderer" (zarduz) in various biographical accounts including that of the Persian historianDawlatshah Samarqandi. This however, is not the occupation listed by Haji Bektash Veli in theMaqālat and was rather the epithet given to theIsma'iliImam Shams al-Din Muhammad, who worked as an embroiderer while living in anonymity in Tabriz. The transference of the epithet to the biography of Rumi's mentor suggests that this Imam's biography must have been known to Shams-i Tabrīzī's biographers. The specificities of how this transference occurred, however, are not yet known.[3]
On 15 November 1244, a man in a black suit from head to toe came to the famous inn of Sugar Merchants of Konya. His name was Shams Tabrizi. He was claiming to be a travelling merchant. As it was said in Haji Bektash Veli's book, "Makalat", he was looking for something which he was going to find in Konya. Eventually he found Rumi riding a black horse.
One dayRumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.)
A second version of the tale has Shams passing byRumi who again is reading a book. Rumi regards him as an uneducated stranger. Shams asks Rumi what he is doing, to which Rumi replies, "Something that you do not understand!" At that moment, the books suddenly catch fire and Rumi asks Shams to explain what happened. His reply was, "Something you do not understand."[5]
After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled inKhoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. In Rumi's poetry Shams becomes a guide towards Allah's (Creator) love for mankind; Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path dispelling darkness in Rumi's heart, mind, and body on earth.
According to contemporary Sufi tradition, Shams Tabrizi mysteriously disappeared: some say he was killed by close disciples of Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi who were jealous of the close relationship between Rumi and Shams, but according to many certain evidences, he left Konya and died inKhoy where he was buried.Sultan Walad,Rumi's son, in hisWalad-Namamathnawi just mentions that Shams mysteriously disappeared from Konya with no more specific details.[6][7]
Shams Tabrizi's tomb in Khoy, beside a tower monument in a memorial park, has been nominated as a World Cultural Heritage Center byUNESCO.[8]
TheMaqalat-e Shams-e Tabrizi (Discourse of Shams-i Tabrīzī) is a Persian prose book written by Shams.[9] TheMaqalat seems to have been written during the later years of Shams, as he speaks of himself as an old man. Overall, it bears a mystical interpretation of Islam and contains spiritual advice.
Some excerpts from theMaqalat provide insight into the thoughts of Shams:
An array of mystical poetry, laden with devotional sentiments and strong'Alid inclinations, has been attributed to Shams-i Tabrīzī across the Persian Islamic world. Scholars such as Gabrielle van den Berg have sometimes questioned whether these were really authored by Shams-i Tabrīzī. However, later scholars have pointed out that it may instead be a question of whether the name Shams-i Tabriz has been used for more than one person. Van den Berg suggests that this identification is the pen name of Rumi. However she acknowledges that, despite the large number of poems attributed to Shams, that comprise the devotional repertoire of the Ismailis ofBadakhshan, an overwhelming majority of these cannot be located in any of the existing works of Rumi. Rather, as Virani observes, some of these are located in the "Rose Garden of Shams" (Gulzār-i Shams), authored by Mulukshah, a descendant of the Ismaili Pir Shams, as well as in other works.[12]
He may also have met the great Persian mystic Shams al-Din Tabrizi there, but it was only later that the full influence of this latter was to be exerted on him.
The Persian mystic Shams al-Din Tabrizi arrived in Konya (Asia Minor)
In a poem from Rumi, the word buri is mentioned from the mouth of Shams Tabrizi by Rumi. Rumi translates the word in standard Persian as biyā (the imperative "come"). This word is also a native word of the Tabrizi Iranian dialect which is mentioned by Persian Sufi, Hafez Karbalaie in his work Rawdat al-Jenān. In the poem of Baba Taher, the word has come down as bura (come) and in the NW Iranian Tati dialects (also called Azari but should not be confused with the Turkish language of the same name) of Azerbaijan, in Harzandi Tati it is biri and in Karingani Tati it is bura (Kiya 1976). Shams Tabrizi was an Iranian Shafi'ite like the bulk of the Iranian population of Azerbaijan during the pre-Mongol and post-Mongol era.
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