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
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
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 Persian) shining the Light of God on Rumi.
Shams Tabrizi died in Khoy and is buried there. His tomb has been nominated as a World Cultural Heritage Center by UNESCO
List of genealogy of the Pir according to the Gulzar-e-Shams
1. Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq
2. Sayyid lsmail Arizi Akbar
3. Sayyid Muhammad Arizi
4. Sayyid Ismail Sani (Imamuddin)
5. Sayyid Muhammad Mansur Khakani
6. Sayyid Ghalibuddin.
7. Sayyid Abdul Majid.
8. Sayyid Mustansirbiiiah.
9. Sayyid Ahmed Hadi.
10. Sayyid Hashim
11. Sayyid Muhammad
12. Sayyid Muhammad Sabzawari.
13. Sayyid Muhammad Mohibdin
14. Sayyid Khaliqdin alias Sayyid Ali
15. Sayyid Abdui Momin Shah
16. Sayyid Noorbaksh lmamdin
17. Sayyid Salahuddin
18. Sayyid Shamsuddin Iraqi or Sabzawari
19. Sayyid Nasiruddin
20. Sayyid Pir Shihabuddin
21. Sayyid Pir Sadruddin.
