Shams of Tabriz
The itinerant dervish who became Rumi's mirror — forty days of conversation that produced forty thousand lines of poetry.
Core ideas
- The teacher appears when the student is ready to be undone
- Direct experience outranks book learning
- Love is the shortest path to truth
Historical context
Shams disappears from the record around 1247; Rumi's search for him became the Divan's engine.
Key works
Maqalat (discourses)
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
- RumiBalkh → Konya
- Attar of NishapurNishapur
- Al-GhazaliTus, Persia
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica — Shams-e Tabrizi