The Unreadable Script
The Spiritual State of Shams ud-Din Tabrizi
by Dr.Muhammad Este'lami, Professor of Persian language, McGill University, Canada

Religious leaders, instructors in Islamic canon law, and those who
were envious of Rumi's popularity and influence, were just as
confused as his intimate disciples. At first they merely complained. Then they began to make an issue of Shams. They slandered him,calling him a magician and a wizard.Finally, to relieve the situation, Shams, who had no intention of divorcing Rumi from his friends and followers, decided to leave Konya, departing without saying where he was going. He had separation would have been very difficult for both of them, Shams's departure was clearly very hard on Rumi.


On the other hand, a brand new phenomenon emerged from him. For
the first time, his disciples and close friends heard poetry coming out of him, ghazals and lyrical poems springing from the core of his being,such as:

You are the light of this house;
don't leave it, don't go away.
Keep our sugar-like happiness
continue: don't go away.
(Rumi 1963-70, Ghazal 2143)


Thenceforth Rumi occupied himself with reciting his ghazals,
participating in his mystical music and dance, and all the while
searching for Shams everywhere. He wrote many number of letters,
but had no address to send them to. Finally, reliable news of a
sighting arrived from the Shams, that is, Syria, prompting him to
sing out:

Good news has come that Shams
of Tabriz is in Shaam!
What daylights be will show if
he should be in Shaam!
(ibid., Ghazal 939)
(Note: Shaam was the old name for Damascus, Syria)
Rumi is making a double pun here, playing on the words Shams and Shaam. Shaam meaning both 'Syria and night' in Persian, and the assonant word Shams, which besides being the proper name, also means 'Sun' in
Arabic. The idea is that in Damascus Shams illuminates Damascus as
the sun brightens the dark of the night.

In any case, Rumi's eldest son Baha' ad-Din Sultan Walad was
dispatched to Damascus, and when he found Shams, the pair and
their associates returned to Konya on foot. After fourteen months of separation, Rumi and Shams found his spiritual beloved again, his special friend, his master, each in the other. At the same time, Shams found himself in a difficult situation from before. Most of Rumi's disciples had gathered again around their
master, but the theology pupils were no longer attending his classes. There were only Sufis surrounding him. At first Shams was welcomed by them, but that pleasant situation was not to last. Why was that? Because Shams was the same unreadable script. He had returned from Syria, but he ever maintained:

"I did not want to come back from Aleppo [sic]!"
(Tabrizi 1991, p.255)

There is a story that Shams married a woman from Rumi's house. In
his Maqalaat he alludes to the event thus:

"When I went to her room, the room asked me: 'Why have you come
here?' For a while I occupied myself looking around at the furnishings. Then she called others to come and see her strange husband. They looked at me in amazement, and she was amused by this"
(ibid., p.224).
Despite the fact that there had been no poetic expression in his family,Rumi found that the most eloquent verses came issuing out of him. He was so adept that he found himself even creating new meters spontaneously. Hereafter fine a change this was spiritually, it was not to the liking of the sober theologians, who resented Shams as a wizard who had put a spell on their most respected theologian. Shams was quite content with Rumi's state and expressions and did everything possible to keep him secluded from society; and Rumi preferred not to associate with others, as well, declaring:

O cup-bearer! Quick! Lock the
door from inside!
Tell anyone who comes that I
don't want to see them!
(Rumi 1963-70, Ghazal 767)

Opposition gradually increased, and many people around Rumi's
circle came to the opinion that Shams should be killed. The man who had come to Konya one autumn, disappeared during another autumn three years later, in 1247. The most reliable accounts of Shams's fate comes from Sultan Walad, who recounts: "Shams disappeared suddenly, having already warned that he would leave Konya in such a way, so that nobody would find him again" (Furuzanfar 1970, p.76).

There can be no truth to the claim that Shams was killed in Konya,
because after his disappearance Rumi searched for him for a long
time, even traveling twice to Damascus. In any case, many questions about Shams remain unanswered about his family, other periods of his life, his ultimate fate, and the nature of his incredible personality. As a Sufi, Shams does not conform to the conventional definition of the term, and his relationship with Rumi is also very different from that of other Sufi masters and disciples. In this exceptional case, the two of them are both master and disciple. Their relationship is beyond ordinary human understanding.

The profundity of the influence of Shams on Rumi's life and works is best expressed by Gulpinarli: "Rumi was like purely clean lamp, where the oil was poured in the holder and a wick placed therein, ready to be lit; and Shams was the spark to set it a fire"
(introduction to Aflaki 1959-60, p. 648).

* The main reference of this article is my introduction to the complete edition of the Mathnawi which has been published in seven volumes and includes the test, commentary and a separate volume of indices, comprising 3500 pp. in total.
Dated Spring 2000, Tehran: Intisharat-i Sukhan.

References:
- Aflaki, Sh.A. 1959-60. 'Manaqib al-Arifin'.
Ed.Tahsin Yazichi, Ankara
- Furuzanfar, B. 1970, 'Sharh-i ahwal-i Mawlana Jalal ad-Din
Muhammad'. Tehran: Zawwar.
- Rumi, J.1963-70. 'Kulliyat-i Shams-i Tabrizi'. Ed., B. Furuzanfar. Tehran: University of Tehran Press.
- Rumi.J. 2000. 'Mathnawi'.7 vols. Ed., M.Este'lami.
Tehran: Intisharat-i Sukhan.

- Tabrizi, Sh. 1991. 'Maqalaat-i Shams'.
Ed., M.A.Muvahhid. Tehran Khwarazmi.

from: "Sufi Magazine" No.52 Winter 2001/2
by Dr.Muhammad Este'lami, Professor of Persian language,
McGill University, Canada