Shams-i-Tabrīzī or Shams al-Din Mohammad (died ca.1248) was a Persian Muslim, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi’s poetic collection, in particular Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz). Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī has recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Life of Shams-i Tabrīzī

According to Sipah Salar, a devotee and intimate friend of Rumi who spent forty years with him, Shams was the son of the Imam Ala al-Din. In a work entitled Manāqib al-‘arifīn (Eulogies of the Gnostics), Aflaki names a certain ‘Ali as the father of Shams-i Tabrīzī and his grandfather as Malikdad. Apparently basing his calculations on Haji Bektash Veli's Maqālāt (Conversations), Aflaki suggests that Shams arrived in Konya at the age of sixty years. However, various scholars have questioned Aflaki’s reliability.

Shams received his education in Tabriz and was a disciple of Baba Kamal al-Din Jumdi. Before meeting Rumi, he apparently traveled from place to place weaving baskets and selling girdles for a living. Despite his occupation as a weaver, Shams received the epithet of “the embroiderer” (zarduz) in various biographical accounts including that of the Persian historian Dawlatshah. This however, is not the occupation listed by Haji Bektash Veli in the ”Maqālat” and was rather the epithet given to the Ismaili Imam Shams al-din Muhammad, who worked as an embroider while living in anonymity in Tabriz. The transference of the epithet to the biography of Rumi’s mentor suggests that this Imam’s biography must have been known to Shams-i Tabrīzī’s biographers. The specificities of how this transference occurred, however, are not yet known.

Shams’ encounter with Rumi

In 1244, a man in black suit from head to toe, came to the famous inn of Sugar Merchants of Konya. His name was Shams Tabrizi. He was claiming to be a travelling merchant. As it was said in Haji Bektash Veli's book, "Makalat", he was looking for something. Which he was going to find in Konya. Eventually he found Rumi riding a horse.

One day Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand."

A second version of the tale has Shams passing by Rumi who again is reading a book. Rumi regards him as an uneducated stranger. Shams asks Rumi what he is doing, to which Rumi replies, "Something that you do not understand!" At that moment, the books suddenly catch fire and Rumi asks Shams to explain what happened. His reply was, "Something you do not understand."

After several years with Rumi in Konya , Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. In Rumi's poetry Shams becomes a symbol of God's love for mankind; Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of God on Rumi.

Death

Shams Tabrizi died in Khoy and is buried there. His tomb has been nominated as a World Cultural Heritage Center by UNESCO. A saint by the name of Shams-i Tabrīzī is also buried at Multan, Pakistan. The tomb stone clearly indicates it is the same Shams-i Tabrīzī, who was the spiritual mentor of Rumi. But this is wrong actually this tomb belongs to Hazrat Pir Shamsuddin Sabzwari Multani who is the pir of the Ismaili spiritual and theological school.

List of genealogy of the Pir according to the Gulzar-e-Shams

# Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq # Sayyid lsmail Arizi Akbar # Sayyid Muhammad Arizi # Sayyid Ismail Sani (Imamuddin) # Sayyid Muhammad Mansur Khakani # Sayyid Ghalibuddin. # Sayyid Abdul Majid. # Sayyid Mustansirbiiiah. # Sayyid Ahmed Hadi. # Sayyid Hashim # Sayyid Muhammad # Sayyid Muhammad Sabzawari. # Sayyid Muhammad Mohibdin # Sayyid Khaliqdin alias Sayyid Ali # Sayyid Abdui Momin Shah # Sayyid Noorbaksh lmamdin # Sayyid Salahuddin # Sayyid Shamsuddin Iraqi or Sabzawari # Sayyid Nasiruddin # Sayyid Pir Shihabuddin # Sayyid Pir Sadruddin.

Discourses of Shams-i Tabrīzī

The Maqalat-e Shams-e Tabrizi (Discourses of Shams-i Tabrīzī) is a Persian prose book written by Shams. The Maqalat seems to have been written during the later years of Shams, as he speaks of himself as an old man. Overall, it bears a mystical interpretation of Islam and contains spiritual advice. Some excerpts from the Maqalat provide insight into the thoughts of Shams:

Blessing is excess, so to speak, an excess of everything. Don't be content with being a faqih (religious scholar), say I want more - more than being a Sufi (a mystic), more than being a mystic - more than each thing that comes before you.

A good man complains of no one; he does not look to faults.

Joy is like pure clear water; wherever it flows, wondrous blossoms grow...Sorrow is like a black flood; wherever it flows it wilts the blossoms.

''And the Persian language, how did it happen? With so much elegance and goodness such that the meanings and elegance that is found in the Persian language is not found in Arabic.

An array of mystical poetry laden with devotional sentiments and strong ‘Alid inclinations has been attributed to Shams-i Tabrīzī across the Persian Islamic world. Scholars such as Gabrielle van den Berg have sometimes questioned whether these were really authored by Shams-i Tabrīzī however later scholars have pointed out that it may instead be a question of which Shams-i Tabriz. Van den Berg suggests that this identification is the pen name of Rumi however she acknowledges that despite the large number of poems attributed to Shams that comprise the devotional repertoire of the Ismailis of Badakhshan, an overwhelming majority of these cannot be located in any of the existing works of Rumi. Rather, as Virani observes, some of these are located in the “Rose Garden of Shams” (Gulzār-i Shams), authored by Mulukshah, a descendent of the Ismaili Pir Shams, as well as in other works.

See also

Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

List of Persian poets and authors

Persian literature

Rumi's Kimia (film)

References

Further reading

Browne, E.G. A Literary History of Persia. Cambridge: University Press, 1929.

Tabrizi, Shams-i. Me & Rumi : The Autobiography of Shams-i Tabrīzīi, edited by William C. Chittick. Louisville: Fons Vitae, 2004.Shams-i Tabrīzī

Rypka, Jan. History of Iranian Literature, edited by Karl Jahn. (Dordrecht, Reidel), 1968.

Virani, Shafique N., The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation¸(New York: Oxford University Press), 2007.

External links

The Autobiography of Shems-i Tabrizi

Rumi's Sun - The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz

Poems written by Hazrat Shams Tabrezi

Category:Iranian Sufis Category:Persian poets Category:Persian philosophers Category:Medieval Persian people Category:People from Tabriz Category:1248 deaths

az:Şəms Təbrizi ceb:Shams-e Tabrizi de:Schams-e Tabrizi fa:شمس تبریزی fr:Shams ed Dîn Tabrîzî sv:Shams ad-din Tabrizi tr:Şems-i Tebrizi

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise. Also, " The Man is coming" is a term used to frighten small children who are misbehaving.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

History

The term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to the late 19th Century. In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me"; Jonathan Larson's Rent, William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema.

Use as praise

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also

Absentee landlord

Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)

New World Order (conspiracy theory)

Ruling class

The Establishment

Power elite

Corrections officer

YTMND

Notes

References

Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.

Category:Slang expressions Category:Stock characters Category:English idioms Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Military-industrial complex