the Mongols in 1219, Bahaud din fled with his family from Balkh. After
several years of wandering, he finally settled in Konia in present-dayTurkey,
where he gave lectures on religious sciences and mystical knowledge.These
were well attended. At the death of Bahaud din in 1231, Jalal ud din took
over from his father. By then, he was already well versed in the religious
sciences: Qur’anic commentary, hadith,
fiqh
,Arabic language and literature.
He also studied mystical practices under a master, Burhan ud din Muhaqqiq
al Tirmidhi (d. 1244) but they did not make much impression on him at
that time.
It is said that one day Rumi was sitting among his books, surrounded by
his disciples, when a passing dervish stopped by, looked around and asked:
‘What are all these books about?’ Rumi, judging him by his unkempt looks,
dismissed him saying: ‘You wouldn’t know about that.’ At this the books
burst into flames. Rumi was heart-broken so the dervish restored the
books to their former state.When asked by Rumi how he had done so, he
was given the answer: ‘You would not understand
that
.’
24
The dervish was none other than Shams ud din ofTabriz and the meeting
changed Rumi’s life. He identified himself so completely with Shams that
the voluminous collection of his mystical couplets is called
Diwan-i Shams
Tabriz
. A large number of ghazals bears the name Shams Tabriz as their
takhallus
and the dominant theme is the ecstatic love of God. In fact Rumi
became so obsessed with Shams ud din that his disciples plotted against the
dervish and he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. It is said that
the disciples murdered him.
However it was not the numerous couplets or
ghazals
and quatrains or
24
paraphrased after an account given by Khalifah Abdul Hakim, Jalal ad Din Rumi, in Sharif, M.M.
ed.;
T owar d s Mys t i c i sm 52
