The Role of Shams and Rumi in Orhan Pamuk's "The Black Book": An Analysis

Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi, nicknamed Rumi, is one of the greatest mystic poets of Iran and the world, who, in addition to being a poet, is considered one of the world's thinkers. Orhan Pamuk is a contemporary Turkish novelist who created the novel "The Black Book" by adapting the works, thoughts, life and people around Rumi.In the novel "The Black Book", Pamuk has made many references to the love and devotion of Molana towards "Shams" and the emotional connection between "Moulana" and "Shams". In the present research, the method of Pamuk's use of Rumi's state, works and thoughts has been investigated and analyzed with the method of content analysis. The findings of the research show that Pamuk created the novel "Black Book" based on the relationship between "Shams" and "Moulana" and represented the events of the life and mental changes of Maulana after meeting with Shams in detail to his audience.Also, the mystical concept of "becoming other" and distancing oneself by following the model of the relationship between "Shams" and Rumi" has become a frequent practice in this novel. The novel "Black Book" introduces every reader directly and indirectly to the thought and mysticism of Rumi, even the readers who do not know Maulvi in advance, can, by reading this novel, get to know the spiritual world to some extent. And also to get familiar with the objective life of Rumi, or to find a motivation to know and understand Rumi's worldview.