The place where two seas meet; Meracel Bahrain

At the place where Rumi and Shams met on November 30, 1244, there is a monument bearing the name “Meracel Bahrain”

Selcuk University (SU) Mevlana Research Institute Director Prof. Dr. Ali Temizel said that “the meeting of Rumi and Shams-i Tabriz is called “Meracel Bahrain”, which means “meeting of two seas”.”

Pointing out the importance of Shams-i Tabriz in Rumi’s life, Temizel stated that “The two of them were influenced by each other. Their friendship started in this way. Rumi may not have sung poetry, especially until he met Shams. He was a preacher, a cleric, and was raising students. He had conversations, there was a student group following him. He was giving lectures on religion and morality to the people in Konya. After Shams comes, another fire burns itself because Shams is already the sun. He also feels the depth of truth and spirituality. Rumi was already a person who had the groundwork for this. His humanitarian thought and the education he received from his father led Rumi to spiritual love. His works contain stories about the history of religions in India and Iran. There are artifacts that will somehow become a source of history. There is historical, literary, aesthetic and religious information in terms of reflecting both the time and the events in history. He sought ways to reach God.”

Temizel said that “Rumi’s friendship with Shams was envied by his students. Therefore, these students and disciples started propaganda against Shams. There were also rumors that weren’t true. There were events that will cause him to leave here somehow. Once he left, Rumi’s son brought him back. On his second trip, was he killed or did he run away? It is disputed in various sources. He has graves elsewhere in the world. If he stayed here, some sources say that he would be killed. Shams was not accepted by Mevlana’s friends. This also affected his prayer.”

Being amazed by the transcendental knowledge he discovered in Shams, Rumi left teaching and mufti and became a dervish like him.

Rumi said in one of his poets as follows:

“O Shamsi (Sun) of God, if I see anything other than God in your pure mirror, I will be worse than an unbeliever” (Divan p.409). In other words, Rumi saw the manifestation of God in him and expressed it on various occasions.

Sultan Veled, son of Rumi, who knew Shams well, told how Rumi and Shams met. According to him, their meeting was similar to the meeting of Khidr and Moses as described in the Qur’an (see 18/ 60–82). That is, the knowledge that Moses had is rather worldly, whereas the knowledge of Khidr is the knowledge given by God. “Khidr” means green in Arabic. In other words, the person who gives information from God at every moment. Here, Mevlana found these in Shams and learned them. After the knowledge of ledun he received, he abandoned worldly knowledge and embraced God’s eternal love:

“I am happy that I am now free of worldly happiness. I am drunk and happy without drinking wine; 

If I’m not like anyone else

Congratulations to this secret state of mine! (Divan, p.1426)

“My heart! When you became aware of the secrets, you got rid of all worldly affairs, you became free. (Divan, verse 58).

“Oh moon! You are the one who raises the fire in my heart. There are friends, but you are the one who burns my heart. People are happy with Nawruz and Eid, but you are both my Nawruz and my Eid”.   

Shams & Rumi

The mausoleum of his long-time friend Shams-i Tebrizi in Konya, the section reserved for him in the Mevlana Museum, and the place where they met on November 30, 1244, who most influenced Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, the great Turkish-Islamic thinker and mystic, the pioneer of the Mevlevi path in Sufism. Meracel Bahrain” monument is flooded with visitors during the Seb-i Arus period.

Shams-i Tabriz, who was born in Tabriz and lived between 1185-1248, draws attention as an Islamic scholar who met Rumi and caused great changes in his heart. Shams had a profound effect on his becoming a perfect lover of Rights by melting his in the pot of divine love at the end of his three-year partnership with Rumi. The verse work, consisting of 44,834 couplets, written by Rumi, is also known as “Divan-ı Şems-i Tebrizi” and consists of divine love poems.