The Sun of Tabriz: Rumi & Shams and the Love That Created 40,000 Poems

Drift off to sleep with the most famous love story in the history of poetry. In November 1244, a wandering dervish named Shams of Tabriz stopped a professor's mule in the streets of Konya and asked him a question, and Jalal al-Din Rumi, a respected scholar who had never written a verse, became the poet whose words are still read in a hundred languages tonight. When Shams vanished in the winter of 1248, Rumi's grief became more than 40,000 verses of love poetry, gathered under his beloved's name, the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, with thousands of poems signed "Shams" instead of "Rumi." Tonight we travel through the meeting in the market street, the forty days of seclusion, the whirling that began among goldsmiths' hammers, the searches through Damascus, and the December night in 1273 that Konya still celebrates as Shab-e Arus, the Wedding Night.As always, the story is told twice, once at a natural pace, then again slowly, with long pauses, to carry you into sleep. You are part of a long, beautiful history. And you are safe here.Support the show (only if you'd like, no need at all, sleep well either way): https://restful-rainbow.captivate.fm/support