Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi

A collection of lyric poems by the Persian poet Rumi, named for his spiritual companion Shams of Tabriz. Its poems include ghazals and quatrains shaped by ecstatic love and spiritual longing.

Connect

Ghazal: A lyric poem built from autonomous couplets, often linked by rhyme and a recurring refrain. Many of the Divan’s poems use this form to sustain shifting declarations of love.
Rumi: A thirteenth-century Persian poet and Sufi teacher whose works include the Masnavi and the Divan. He composed the poems under the collection’s title and often speaks through its lyric voice.
Sufi poetry: Poetry that expresses Sufi ideas and experiences through devotional, symbolic, or ecstatic language. The Divan is a major example of poetry where mystical devotion takes lyric form.
Mevlevi Order: A Sufi order founded by followers of Rumi, known for its ceremony of whirling and devotional music. Mevlevi settings have kept Rumi’s poetry present through recitation, music, and ritual.
Rubai: A Persian quatrain, commonly organized around a single compact thought or turn. The collection also includes brief quatrains alongside its longer lyrics.
Shams of Tabriz: A Persian Sufi mystic whose encounter with Rumi transformed the poet’s life and work. The collection names Shams as the beloved and spiritual presence addressed throughout its poems.
Divan: A collected body of a poet’s works, often arranged by poetic form or rhyme. The title places Rumi’s lyrics within the Persian tradition of collected poetic works.
Whirling dervish: A practitioner of the Mevlevi ceremony who performs turning movements as part of devotional worship. The order’s ritual culture connects the Divan’s ecstatic imagery with embodied devotion.
Persian language: An Indo-Iranian language with a long literary tradition across Iran, Central Asia, and South Asia. The Divan’s original language carries poetic conventions that translations cannot fully reproduce.
Sultan Walad: A Persian poet and the son of Rumi who helped establish the Mevlevi Sufi order. His accounts preserve early traditions about Rumi’s relationship with Shams.