A Brief Description of Shams’ Articles and the Significance of the Works of Sultan Valad in Their Explanation

Shams’ articles are a text provided by Shams’ words, during which he resided in Konya and was accompanied by Mawlana. Articles are important for understanding Shams’ personality and thought, as well as better understanding of Mawlana, but the text is very complex and vague, even in some cases without any specific link, because: 1) Shams speaks briefly and with remark and avoids speaking and attending in public; 2) This book is not written by Shams, but his words that others have written, although some of its contents may have been modified by himself later on; 3) The existing versions of Shams’ Articles are very messy. One of the ways to explain some of the stories and to resolve the ambiguities of the articles is to refer to the works of Rumi and his son, Sultan Valad. The scholars who have studied the works of Sultan Valad, have all come to the conclusion that his books are not literally supreme; nevertheless, the importance of his works, in particular, of his Masnavi in clarifying some of the events of Shams and Rumi’s life, as well as his superiority in history of Turkish poem has been emphasized. In this article, after a brief introductory statement, some examples of his poetry and prose are mentioned which are effective in explaining or detailing some vague and concise points of Shams’ Articles.