He was the sheikh of a dervish community in
Konya, Turkey. He lived the life of a religious scholar until one day in 1244 when he met
a stranger, a wandering dervish named Shams-i Tabrizi, who put a question to him. The
stranger's question caused Rumi to faint dead away. When he came to, his spiritual life
was transformed.
He became a mystical artist and poet. Under
Shams-i Tabrizi's influence, Rumi was outwardly transformed from a sober jurisprudent to
an intoxicated celebrant of the mysteries of Divine Love. For a year or two, they were
constant companions.
Within three years of meeting Shams-i Tabrizi,
Shams vanishes forever from Rumi's exterior world. At this point, Rumi leaves off
preaching to the general public, and devotes the remaining twenty six years of his life to
training his Sufi initiates and writing divinely inspired poetry.
