Hafez

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Not to be confused with Hafiz (disambiguation).

Hafez

An artistic depiction of Hafez with a Chang (harp) player.

spiritual poet, mystic

Born 1325/1326 CE
Shiraz, Persia (Iran)

Died 1389/1390 CE

Shiraz, Persia (Iran)

Major shrine Tomb of Hafez, Shiraz, Iran

Influences Ibn

Arabi, Khwaju, Sanai, Anvari, Nizami, Sa'di, Khaqani, Attar

Influenced Subsequent Persian lyric poets, Goethe

 Tradition or Mystic poetry (Ghazal, Irfan)
genre

Major works Divan-e-Hafez

Khwja Shams-ud-Dn Muammad fe-e Shrz (Persian: ) , known

by his pen name Hafez (fe 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325/261389/90),[1] was
a Persian poet who "lauded the joys of love and wine but also targeted religious hypocrisy."[2] His
collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of
most people in Iran, who learn his poems by heart and still use them as proverbs and sayings. His
life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing
post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author.[3][4]
Hafez, who was a 14th-century poet in Iran, is best known for his poems that can be described as
antinomian[5] and with the medieval use of the term theosophical; this term theosophy in the 13th
and 14th centuries was used to indicate mystical work by authors only inspired by the holy books
(as distinguished from theology). Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry that is the
ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems.
Themes of his ghazals are the beloved, faith, and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals, he deals with
love, wine and tavern, all presenting the ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual
worldly release or in the voice of the lover[6] speaking of divine love.[7] His influence in the lives of
Persian speakers can be found in "Hafez readings" (fl-e hfez, Persian: ) and the frequent
use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy. His tomb is visited
often. Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages.

Contents
[hide]

1Life
2Legends
3Influence
o 3.1Intellectual and artistic legacy
o 3.2In contemporary Iranian culture
o 3.3In Iranian music
o 3.4In Afghan music
4Interpretation
5Satire, religion, and politics
6Modern editions
7See also
8Notes
9Sources
10External links

Life[edit]
Doublures inside a 19th-century copy of the Divn of Hafez. The front doublure shows Hafez offering his work
to a patron.

Hafez was born in Shiraz, Iran. His parents were from Kazerun, Fars Province. Despite his profound
effect on Persian life and culture and his enduring popularity and influence, few details of his life are
known. Accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes. Early tazkiras (biographical
sketches) mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable.[8] At an early age, he memorized
the Quran and was given the title of Hafez, which he later used as his pen name.[9][10] The preface of
his Divn, in which his early life is discussed, was written by an unknown contemporary whose name
may have been Moammad Golandm.[11] Two of the most highly regarded modern editions of
Hafez's Divn are compiled by Moammad Ghazvini and Qsem ani (495 ghazals) and by Parviz
Natel-Khanlari (486 ghazals).[12][13]
Modern scholars generally agree that Hafez was born either in 1315 or 1317; following an account
by Jami 1390 is considered the year in which he died.[11][14] Hafez was supported by patronage from
several successive local regimes: Shah Abu Ishaq, who came to power while Hafez was in his
teens; Timur at the end of his life; and even the strict ruler Shah Mubariz ud-Din Muhammad
(Mubariz Muzaffar). Though his work flourished most under the 27-year rule of Jalal ud-Din Shah
Shuja (Shah Shuja),[15] it is claimed Hfez briefly fell out of favor with Shah Shuja for mocking inferior
poets (Shah Shuja wrote poetry himself and may have taken the comments personally), forcing
Hfez to flee from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd, but no historical evidence is available.[15] His
mausoleum, Hfezieh, is located in the Musalla Gardens of Shiraz.

Legends[edit]

Divan of Hafez, with a Persian miniature at left and ghazals in nastaliq at right. Signed by Shah Qasem,
1617. National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Persia.

Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hafez after his death. It is said that by
listening to his father's recitations, Hafez had accomplished the task of learning the Quran by heart
at an early age (that is the meaning of the word Hafez). At the same time, he is said to have known
by heart the works of Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi), Saadi, Farid ud-Din, and Nizami.
According to one tradition, before meeting his patron Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Hafez had been working in
a bakery, delivering bread to a wealthy quarter of the town. There, he first saw Shakh-e Nabat, a
woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed. Ravished by her beauty but
knowing that his love for her would not be requited, he allegedly held his first mystic vigil in his desire
to realize this union. Still, he encountered a being of surpassing beauty who identified himself as
an angel, and his further attempts at union became mystic; a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine.
A Western parallel is that of Dante and Beatrice.
At 60, he is said to have begun a Chilla-nashini, a 40-day-and-night vigil by sitting in a circle that he
had drawn for himself. On the 40th day, he once again met with Zayn al-Attar on what is known to be
their fortieth anniversary and was offered a cup of wine. It was there where he is said to have
attained "Cosmic Consciousness". He hints at this episode in one of his verses in which he advises
the reader to attain "clarity of wine" by letting it "sit for 40 days".
Although he hardly ever traveled outside Shiraz, in one tale, Tamerlane (Timur) angrily summoned
Hafez to account for one of his verses:
:If that Shirazi Turk would take my heart in hand
I would remit Samarkand and Bukhr for her black mole.
Samarkand was Tamerlane's capital and Bokhara was the kingdom's finest city. "With the blows
of my lustrous sword", Timur complained, "I have subjugated most of the habitable globe... to
embellish Samarkand and Bokhara, the seats of my government; and you would sell them for
the black mole of some girl in Shiraz!"
Hafez, the tale goes, bowed deeply and replied, "Alas, O Prince, it is this prodigality which is the
cause of the misery in which you find me". So surprised and pleased was Timur with this
response that he dismissed Hafez with handsome gifts.[15]

Influence[edit]

A couplet versified by Hafez in Nasta lq.

Intellectual and artistic legacy[edit]

Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian
poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad to India.[15]
His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones. It would leave a mark on
such Western writers as Thoreau, Goethe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (the last referred to him
as "a poet's poet").[citation needed]. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his character Sherlock Holmes state
that "there is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world" (in A
Case of Identity). Friedrich Engels mentioned him in an 1853 letter to Karl Marx:
:It is, by the way, rather pleasing to read dissolute old Hafiz in the original language, which
sounds quite passable and, in his grammar, old Sir William Jones likes to cite as examples
dubious Persian jokes, subsequently translated into Greek verse in his Commentariis poeseos
asiaticae, because even in Latin they seem to him too obscene. These commentaries, Jones
Works, Vol. II, De Poesi erotica, will amuse you. Persian prose, on the other hand, is deadly dull.
E.g. the Rauzt-us-saf by the noble Mirkhond, who recounts the Persian epic in very flowery
but vacuous language. Of Alexander the Great, he says that the name Iskander, in the Ionian
language, is Akshid Rus (like Iskander, a corrupt version of Alexandros); it means much the
same as filusuf, which derives from fila, love, and sufa, wisdom, Iskander thus being
synonymous with friend of wisdom.[16]

In contemporary Iranian culture[edit]

Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian
home.[2] In fact, October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran.[17]

Tomb of Hafez in Shiraz

Twenty years after his death, a tomb, the Hafezieh, was erected to honor Hafez in the Musalla
Gardens in Shiraz. The current mausoleum was designed by Andr Godard, a French
archeologist and architect, in the late 1930s, and the tomb is raised up on
a dais amidst rose gardens, water channels, and orange trees. Inside,
Hafez's alabaster sarcophagus bears the inscription of two of his poems.[citation needed]His tomb is
"crowded with devotees" who visit the site and the atmosphere is "festive" with visitors singing
and reciting their favorite Hafez poems.[2]
Many Iranians use Divan of Hafez for fortune telling. Iranian families usually have a Divan of
Hafez in their house, and when they get together during the Nowruz or Yald holidays, they
open the Divan to a random page and read the poem on it, which they believe to be an
indication of things that will happen in the future.[18]
There is no definitive version of his collected works (or Dvn); editions vary from 573 to 994
poems. In Iran and Afghanistan, his collected works have come to be used as an aid to
popular divination.[19] Only since the 1940s has a sustained scholarly attempt (by Mas'ud
Farzad, Qasim Ghani and others in Iran) been made to authenticate his work and to remove
errors introduced by later copyists and censors. However, the reliability of such work has been
questioned,[20] and in the words of Hfez scholar Iraj Bashiri, "there remains little hope from there
(i.e.: Iran) for an authenticated diwan".[21] Even libraries in Azerbaijan, Armenia,
and Georgia carry his Diwan.[12]
In Iranian music[edit]
Many Iranian composers have composed pieces inspired by or based upon Hafez's poems.
Among Iranian singers, Mohsen Namjoo composed music and vocals on several poems such
as Zolf, Del Miravad, Nameh, and others. Hayedeh performed the song "Padeshah-e Khooban",
with music by Farid Zoland. Mohammad-Reza Shajarian performed the song "Del Miravad Ze
Dastam", with music by Parviz Meshkatian. The Ottoman composer Buhurizade Mustafa
Itri composed his magnum opus Neva Kr based upon one of Hafez's poems. The Polish
composer Karol Szymanowski composed The Love Songs of Hafiz based upon a German
translation of Hafez poems.
In Afghan music[edit]
Many Afghan Singers, including Ahmad Zahir and Sarban, have composed songs such as "Ay
Padeshah-e Khooban", "Gar-Zulfe Parayshanat"