Hermeneutics in the Writings of Shams-e Tabrizi

Hermeneutics–and related concepts of textual significance– in the writings of Shams-e Tabrizi remains a topic largely unexamined by scholars despite its importance and promise for scholarship on mysticism and on Rumi especially، and even more so for understanding the inner life and deeds of Shams-e Tabrizi himself. As a thinker and as an individual، Shams had an essentially intuitive nature fond of coded meanings and devoted much attention to problems of interpretation throughout almost all his writings، where hermeneutics is encountered in a wide range of forms and serves to widen and deepen the author’s philosophy. Shams-e Tabrizi’s conception of interpretation ranges from fine lexical nuances to tangible material objects to intellectual discussions of important theological and social issues. The focus of this article، however، is to employ modern hermeneutical methodology for classifying and analyzing the ways in which Shams-e Tabrizi interpreted Koranic passages (ayat) and retellings of the hadiths (rewayat) and to explore the uniqueness of his understanding of these two categories of religious texts– an understanding not only contradictory to that of the majority of mystics and commentators، but innovative، diverse and overwhelmingly humanistic. This is a task requiring fresh، dedicated and objective scholarly investigation.