Although his date of birth is not specified in the sources, 6/12. The full name of Shams, who we can say was born in the second half of the century, is Ali b. Melikdâd's son is Muhammed Şemseddin-i Tabrizi.
He was born in Tabriz and grew up there. Since his childhood, he attracted attention with his different states and superior creation. He presents himself as an autobiographical information that he was exposed to some extraordinary situations during his childhood. Based on his own statements, it can be said that divine love is inherent in Shams-i Tabrizi himself.
Shams-i Tabrizî was contemporary with Baba Kemal Hucendî, Rükneddin es-Secasi, Evhâdüddîn Kirmânî and Fahreddin Irâkî. According to some sources, he was the dervish of Abu Bakr Sellebâf, according to some, of Baba Kemal, one of the caliphs of Necmeddin Kübra, and according to some, of Rüknuddin Secasi, the caliph of Kutbuddin Ebher, the representative of the Ebheriyye branch of the Halvetiyye lineage. However, Shams himself; “I had a sheikh named Ebubekir in Tabriz. He used to weave baskets and live off of it. I learned a lot of information from him. But there was something in me that my sheikh could not see. No one had ever seen it anyway. This was what my master, Mevlânâ saw.” says. He states that his first sheikh (Sallebaf - basket maker) was Abu Bakr. Although he declared his first sheikh as Abu Bakr Sellebâf in the bodily sense, he states in his Makâlât that he entered his spiritual journey with the guidance of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). Shams, who benefited from the spirituality of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) and became mature in a short time with his worldly sheikh Sellebâf, left his sheikh after a while and left Tabriz to meet with other perfect masters and wandered around the land. 
Shams-i Tabrizi, who joined Ebubekir Sellebâf-ı Tabrizî, later became one of the dervishes of Rükneddin Secasi. He also got along and talked with Baba Kemal-i Hucendi. Shams-i Tabrizi was not content with the rank and status he had reached, he was looking for a deeper and truthful sheikh, a higher rank, in order to reach the secret of humanity and to realize the truth of existence. He had been wandering around for years in order to get into the conversation of a master who would bring him to higher positions. They called him (Şems-i Perende/Flying Şems) because of his exist condition. He was wandering around, searching, asking, testing those who said "I am the sheikh", and when he could not find what he was looking for, he would walk away.
Shams, who came to Erzurum from Tabriz, worked as a teacher in Erzurum. According to the information given by Eflâkî, the ruler of Erzurum together with his family, relatives and entourage, becomes his disciples. This shows that he was in close contact with the Anatolian people before. Shams, who was in Aleppo for a while, entered a cell of the madrasah while he was here and engaged in asceticism and struggle for fourteen months. He stayed in Damascus for about a year before coming to Konya and meeting with Mevlânâ. Eflâkî mentions that before Mevlânâ and Şems met in Konya, they met with Şems while Mevlânâ was in Damascus. He also writes that one day, while Mevlânâ was in the Damascus bazaar, a man dressed in black with a hat on his head kissed Mevlânâ's hand and said: "Oo! the changer of the world of meanings, find me, understand me" and joined into the crowd. And he tells that this man was Shams. After that, Shams stayed in Baghdad for a while and met with Evhâdüddin-i Kirmani. Shams, who had a different thought from Shaykh al-Akbar, was not entirely negative in his opinions about Ibn al-Arabi. Shams also praised Ibn al-Arabi as "a good confidant, pious and deep-sighted, great person".
Shams-i Tabrizi was an indulgent and unpretentious person with an advanced Sufi charm. He was a powerful figure who felt high-level mystical considerations in the depths of his soul. Just as Socrates pioneered Plato, Shams also pioneered Mevlânâ. Just as Socrates was recognized thanks to his student Plato, Shams gained fame through Mevlânâ.
After Sipehsalar described him as the one who attained the maqam of kurbiyet (being close to Allah), the sultan of the saints, the pole of the wise, the heir of the prophets, and the chief of the loved ones of God, while he was still alive, he says that he was a perfect human being who had a sense of discovery and sight and also states that he was just like Moses (pbuh) in terms of being close to Allah, and  just like Jesus (pbuh) in terms of living alone. He was also known as "Kamil-i Tabrizi" because he was a perfect human being. Even though he was a great saint, he would hide himself and his miracles from everyone, live in cities without being known, and when he was recognized, he would leave that city immediately. During his travels, he would not stay in dervish lodges and madrasahs, he would dress like simple merchants, and he would not wear the ostentatious clothes of sheikhs. He would stay in inns, shut the door of his room tightly, and keep nothing but a mat to sleep in.
Shams was aware of tafsir, hadith, poetry and the sciences of the period. In his Makâlât, he often made references to the verses of the Qur'an, understands them as words and evaluates them with some isharic interpretations. He commented on some Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), frequently mentioned hadiths and made necessary evaluations on hadiths. All this knowledge and high-level approach show that he read tafsir, fiqh, hadith and kalam, and knew Arabic and Persian. According to Shams, reaching the truth is only possible with divine love, by following the sunnah-i saniyya, by being far from ostentatious, by being well-mannered, by living what one believes not sticking to words. Shams, like Mevlânâ, was the lover of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).
The most distinctive feature of Shams is that he gave up on worldly blessings and lived a modest life. When the people in his conversation wanted to take him as a disciple, they faced heavy criticism and lost Shams accordingly Shams went away from them.
The coming of Shams-i Tabrizi to Konya and meeting with Mevlânâ is mentioned as 26 Cumade'l-ahîra 642/23 November 1244 in the sources. Mevlânâ and Shams spent six months in seclusion in Salahaddin Zarqubi's house. Sultan Veled likened the meeting of his father and Shams to the meeting of Prophet Moses (pbuh) and Khidr (pbuh / an immortal person believed to come in time of need). This meeting made Mevlânâ and Shams like two lovers and separated Mevlânâ from both his old life and his old friends. Because Shams accepted that love and attraction were essential and knowledge was not a goal but a means of showing our inability to understand the truth. Therefore, above all, he separated Mevlânâ from the things he was fond of. Shams, who led Rumi to the path of love alongside his ascetic and scientific personality, made him feel ecstatic and enthusiastic, and even took him away from his scientific thoughts and books for a while, made him taste the pleasure of Semah ceremony (performance of whirling dervishes) and worked to guide him on this path.
Shams secretly left the city on 11 March 1246/21 Shawwal 643 Thursday due to the negative effect of his close relationship with Mevlânâ on the people and his students. No one had seen him come to Konya. No one saw him go. When Mevlânâ entered into the empty cell of Shams, he felt that his inside was empty and dull and that something was going on and  breaking from the depths of his heart. He stood for a while without saying anything. Shams was no longer there, he had disappeared. This leaving of Shams caused a deep sadness in Mevlânâ. This caused him to completely cut off his relations with his students. He started not to write poems and not to perform Semah ceremony.
A few months later, the first news of Shams was received. There were those who saw him in Damascus. This news made Mevlânâ very happy. With joy and happiness, Mevlânâ started to perform Semah ceremony by composing ghazalles and sent letters. He sent his son to Damascus with gifts and had him bring Shams.
After Shams came, all those who were against him before repented and prayed. Shams also forgave them all. The Semah assemblies was started to be organized. Each day, someone was calling Shams and Mevlânâ somewhere and everyone was making an invitation as much as they could. In fact, Mevlânâ wanted to marry Shams to a girl named Kimya, who grew up with him, with the desire to keep Shams in Konya. Kimya was a highly spiritual person who was grown up by Mevlânâ himself, was educated in Mevlânâ’s teaching, and had "outward and inward manners". This girl had the purity and richness of heart befitting to the noble-minded people. Mevlânâ did not also keep her apart from his own children since she was a child and loved her like his own child. He thought that by marrying her to Shams, Shams would also be the owner of a house and stay here. Shams accepted this offer. It was winter. The hall of the madrasah was divided by a curtain and turned into a room. After a modest wedding ceremony, this sofa was given to the newlyweds. The sofa overlooked the courtyard of the madrasah. This small madrasah, where Mevlânâ lived with his family and children, accommodated all of them, and the whole family lived together.
Those times, which passed with Samah, happiness, pleasure and love, did not last long. Rumors started again against Shams.
While some sources state that Shams, who could not stand the negative attitude against him, suddenly disappeared, some sources state that he was killed by those who could not bear him.
According to what he reported from Sultan Veled, Eflaki wrote that Shams was stabbed by seven jealous, malevolent and wicked people; according to what Eflaki reported from Sultan Veled's wife, Fatma Hatun, his body was thrown into a well.
In the tomb of Shams in Konya, a grave just behind the Sarcophagus of the Sultanü'l-Ulema (the Pioneer of scholars) is also named as “the maqam of Shams" ascribed to Shams.
After a while, Mevlânâ went back to Damascus with his disciples and stayed there for months. However; he returned from this second trip to Damascus in a completely different manner. He slowly started to gain self possession. Sultan Veled states that while Mevlânâ was looking for Shams as a physical person in Damascus, he continued to search for his spiritual identity within himself; that he could not find Shams in Damascus but Shams’s secret and truth were born in his own existence like the moon. After returning to Konya, he began to organize the Samah performances again in order to remove the cultural, traditional and behavioral barriers which alienated us from our own essence, and to eliminate the inner contradiction between our selves and harmonize them with each other.
Shams had a book called Makalat, which was compiled from the conversations he had at the meetings. The work was noted by his disciples during their speeches. Although a work in Masnavi style with 138 couplets named Mergûbu'l-Kulûb and Esma-i Hüsnâ (the beautiful names of Allah) Commentary are attributed to Şems, it is understood from the dates they were written that these books do not belong to Şems.
Shams-i Tabrizi has distinguished himself as a person who was full of excitement, ecstatic, constantly having changes in his spiritual states, traveling from land to land, exchanging ideas with other sheikhs, consuming what he earned with the effort of her hands, always wearing black felt clothes, avoiding being a burden to others, taking God as his beloved, and was happy with His friendship and favour, was far from hypocrisy, whose essence and words were true, and wanted the best of humanity.

-Prof. Dr. Kadir ÖZKÖSE