Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e
Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمسالدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his
pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "Hafiz",
was a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
lyric poet
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
, whose collected works are regarded by many
Iranians as a pinnacle of
Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
. His works are often found in the homes of people in the Persian-speaking world, who learn his poems by heart and use them as everyday proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have become the subjects of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other Persian author.
Hafez is best known for his
Divan of Hafez, a collection of his surviving poems probably compiled after his death. His works can be described as "
antinomian
Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί 'anti''"against" and νόμος 'nomos''"law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term ha ...
" and with the medieval use of the term "theosophical"; the term "
theosophy
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...
" in the 13th and 14th centuries was used to indicate mystical work by "authors only inspired by the
holy books" (as distinguished from
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
). Hafez primarily wrote in the
literary genre
A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided in ...
of
lyric poetry
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
or
ghazals
The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a p ...
, that is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
form of love poems. He was a
Sufi.
Themes of his ghazals include the beloved, faith and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals he deals with love, wine and taverns, all presenting
ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover speaking of divine love.
[Shaida, Khalid Hameed (2014). Hafiz, Drunk with God: Selected Odes. Xlibris Corporation. p. 5. . Retrieved 2016-08-23.] His influence on Persian speakers appears in divination by his poems ( fa, links=no, فال حافظ, ''fāl-e hāfez'', somewhat similar to the Roman tradition of ''
sortes vergilianae
The Sortes Vergilianae (''Virgilian Lots'') is a form of divination by bibliomancy in which advice or predictions of the future are sought by interpreting passages from the works of the Roman poet Virgil. The use of Virgil for divination may date ...
'') and in the frequent use of his poems in
Persian traditional music, visual art and
Persian calligraphy
Persian calligraphy or Iranian calligraphy ( fa, ), is the calligraphy of the Persian language. It is one of the most revered arts throughout the history of Iran.
History
History of Nasta'liq
After the introduction of Islam in the 7th centu ...
. His
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
is located in his birthplace of
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
. Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages.
Life
![Divan-of-Hafiz-1842-Doublures](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Divan-of-Hafiz-1842-Doublures.jpg)
Hafez was born in
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. Few details of his life are known. Accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes. Early ''
tazkira
Tadhkirah (), Arabic for "memorandum" or "admonition", is frequently used as part of the title of literary works of the nature of authoritative collections or summaries. It may refer to the following works:
*''al-Tadhkira al-Harawiya fi al-hiyal ...
s'' (biographical sketches) mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable. At an early age, he memorized the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
and was given the title of ''
Hafez
Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمسالدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "Hafiz", ...
'', which he later used as his pen name. The preface of his Divān, in which his early life is discussed, was written by an unknown contemporary whose name may have been Moḥammad Golandām.
[Khorramshahi. Accessed 25 July 2010] Two of the most highly regarded modern editions of Hafez's Divān are compiled by
Moḥammad Ghazvini and Qāsem Ḡani (495 ''ghazals'') and by
Parviz Natel-Khanlari
Parviz Natel Khanlari ( fa, پرویز ناتل خانلری; March 20, 1914 – August 23, 1990) was an Iranian literary scholar, linguist, author, researcher, politician, and professor at Tehran University.
Biography
Parviz Natel Khanlari g ...
(486 ''ghazals'').
[Lewisohn, p. 69.] Hafez was a
Sufi Muslim.
Modern scholars generally agree that he was born either in 1315 or 1317. According to an account by
Jami
Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī ( fa, نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی; 7 November 1414 – 9 November 1492), also known as Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti, or simply as J ...
, Hafez died in 1390.
Hafez was supported by
patronage from several successive local regimes: Shah Abu Ishaq, who came to power while Hafez was in his teens;
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kü ...
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),
[Gray, pp. 2-4.] it is claimed Hāfez 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 Hāfez to flee from Shiraz to
Isfahan and
Yazd
Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a Wor ...
, but no historical evidence is available.
[ Hafez also exchanged letters and poetry with ]Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah
Ghiyasuddin A'zam Shah ( bn, গিয়াসউদ্দীন আজম শাহ, fa, ) was the third Sultan of Bengal and the Ilyas Shahi dynasty. He was one of the most prominent medieval Bengali sultans. He established diplomatic relatio ...
, the Sultan of Bengal
The Sultanate of Bengal ( Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা ''Shahī Baṅgala'', Classical Persian: ''Saltanat-e-Bangālah'') was an empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the domina ...
, who invited him to Sonargaon
Sonargaon ( bn, সোনারগাঁও; pronounced as ''Show-naar-gaa''; lit. ''Golden Hamlet'') is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division.
Sonargaon is on ...
though he could not make it.
Twenty years after his death, a tomb, the ''Hafezieh'', was erected to honor Hafez in the Musalla Gardens in Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
. The current mausoleum was designed by André Godard
André Godard (21 January 1881 – 31 July 1965) was an archaeologist, architect and historian of French and Middle Eastern Art. He served as the director of the Iranian Archeological Service for many years.
Life
Godard was born in Chaumont. ...
, a French archeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, in the late 1930s, and the tomb is raised up on a dais
A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)[dais]
in the Random House Dictionary< ...
amidst rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
gardens, water channels, and orange trees. Inside, Hafez's alabaster
Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...
sarcophagus bears the inscription of two of his poems.
Legends
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
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
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 self-chosen Sufi master Hajji Zayn al-Attar
Haji Zayn Attar ( 1329–1403) was a 14th-century Persian physician. He is best known as the author of the Persian language pharmacopoeia ''Ekhtiyarat i Badi i''.
Biography
Attar was born in 1329-1330 CE (730 AH) in Shiraz, and lived during t ...
, 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
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...
, and his further attempts at union became mystic; a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine.
At 60, he is said to have begun a ''Chilla-nashini
Chilla ( fa, چله, ar, أربعين, both literally "forty"), also known as Chilla-nashini, is a spiritual practice of penance and solitude in Sufism known mostly in Indian and Persian traditions. In this ritual a mendicant or ascetic attem ...
'', 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
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
. 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".
In one tale, Tamerlane
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
(Timur) angrily summoned Hafez to account for one of his verses:
'agar 'ān Tork-e Šīrāzī * be dast ārad del-ē mā-rā
be khāl-ē Hendu-yaš baxšam * Samarqand ō Boxārā-rā
If that Shirazi Turk accepts my heart in their hand,
for their Indian mole I will give Samarkand and Bukhara.
Samarkand was Tamerlane's capital and Bokhara
Bukhara ( Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city h ...
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.
Influence
Intellectual and artistic legacy
Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
to India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.[
His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones. It would leave a mark on such Western writers as ]Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...
, Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
, W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, in his prose anthology book of essays, ''Discoveries'', as well as gaining a positive reception within West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
, in India, among some of the most prolific religious leaders and poets in this province, Debendranath Tagore
Debendranath Tagore (15 May 1817 – 19 January 1905) was an Indian Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (earlier called Bhramho Sabha) ("Society of Brahma", also translated as ''Society of God''). He joined Brahm ...
, Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
's father, who knew Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and used to recite from Hafez's Divans and in this line, Gurudev himself, who, during his visit to Persia in 1932, also made a homage visit to Hafez's tomb in Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
(the last referred to him as "a poet's poet"). 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
"A Case of Identity" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is the third story in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. It first appeared in ''The Strand Magazine'' in September 1891.
Plot summa ...
). Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
.
There is no definitive version of his collected works (or ''Dīvān''); editions vary from 573 to 994 poems. Only since the 1940s has a sustained scholarly attempt (by Mas'ud Farzad, Qasim Ghani and others in Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
) 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, and in the words of Hāfez scholar Iraj Bashiri
Iraj Bashiri ( fa, ایرج بشیری; born July 31, 1940) is professor of history at the University of Minnesota, United States, and one of the leading scholars in the fields of Central Asian studies and Iranian Studies. Fluent in English, Per ...
, "there remains little hope from there (i.e.: Iran) for an authenticated diwan".
In contemporary Iranian culture
Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian home. In fact, October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
His tomb is "crowded with devotees" who visit the site and the atmosphere is "festive" with visitors singing and reciting their favorite Hafez poems.[
Many Iranians use Divan of Hafez for ]fortune telling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
. Iranian families usually have a Divan of Hafez in their house, and when they get together during the Nowruz
Nowruz ( fa, نوروز, ; ), zh, 诺鲁孜节, ug, نەۋروز, ka, ნოვრუზ, ku, Newroz, he, נורוז, kk, Наурыз, ky, Нооруз, mn, Наурыз, ur, نوروز, tg, Наврӯз, tr, Nevruz, tk, Nowruz, ...
or Yaldā 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.
In Iranian music
In the genre of Persian classical music
Persian traditional music or Iranian traditional music, also known as Persian classical music or Iranian classical music, refers to the classical music of Iran (also known as ''Persia''). It consists of characteristics developed through the coun ...
Hafez along with Sa'di have been the most popular poets in the art of āvāz, non-metered form of singing. Also the form 'Sāqi-Nāmeh' in the radif of Persian music is based on the same title by Hafez. A number of contemporary composers such as Parviz Meshkatian
Parviz Meshkatian (Persian: پرويز مشكاتيان; May 15, 1955 – September 21, 2009) was an Iranian musician, composer, researcher and university lecturer.
Biography
Born in Nishapur, Meshkatian entered the Tehran Academy of Ar ...
(Sheydaie), Hossein Alizadeh
Hossein Alizadeh ( fa, حسین علیزاده) is an Iranian musician, composer, radif-preserver, researcher, teacher, and tar, shurangiz and setar instrumentalist and improviser. He has performed with such musicians as Shahram Nazeri, Mohamma ...
(Ahu-ye Vahshi), Mohammad Reza Lotfi
Mohammad-Reza Lotfi ( fa, محمدرضا لطفی; 1 January 1947 – 2 May 2014) was an Iranian classical musician renowned for his mastery of the tar and setar. He collaborated with singers such as Mohammad-Rezā Shajarian, Hengameh Akhavan, ...
(Golestān), and Siamak Aghaie (Yād Bād) have composed metric songs (tasnif) based on ghazals of Hafez which have become very popular in the genre of classical music. Hayedeh
Ma'soumeh Dadehbala ( fa, معصومه ددهبالا; 10 April 1942 – 20 January 1990), known professionally as Hayedeh ( fa, هایده), was an Iranian singer with a contralto vocal range. Known for her wide range of voice, her career span ...
performed the song "Padeshah-e Khooban", with music by Farid Zoland
Farid Zoland ( fa, فرید زلاند), also romanized as Zaland) (born 1 September 1951 in Kabul) is an Afghan songwriter and composer. Throughout his career he has collaborated with many musicians from other countries, most notably from Ira ...
. The Ottoman composer Buhurizade Mustafa Itri composed his magnum opus Neva Kâr 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
Many Afghan singers, including Ahmad Zahir
Ahmad Zahir (Dari/Pashto: ; 14 June 1946 – 14 June 1979) was an Afghan singer, songwriter and composer. Dubbed the " Elvis of Afghanistan", he is widely considered the all-time greatest singer of Afghanistan. The majority of his songs were sung ...
and Sarban, have composed songs such as "Ay Padeshah-e Khooban", "Gar-Zulfe Parayshanat".
Interpretation
The question of whether his work is to be interpreted literally, mystically, or both has been a source of contention among western scholars. On the one hand, some of his early readers such as William Jones saw in him a conventional lyricist similar to European love poets such as Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
. Others scholars such as Henry Wilberforce Clarke
Henry Wilberforce Clarke (1840–1905) was the British translator of Persian works by mystic poets Saadi, Hafez, Nizami and Suhrawardi, as well as writing some works himself. He was an officer in the British India corps Bengal Engineers, and ...
saw him as purely a poet of didactic, ecstatic mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
in the manner of Rumi, a view that a minority of twentieth century critics and literary historians have come to challenge. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
rejected the Sufistic view of wine in Hafez's poems.
This confusion stems from the fact that, early in Persian literary history, the poetic vocabulary was usurped by mystics, who believed that the ineffable could be better approached in poetry than in prose. In composing poems of mystic content, they imbued every word and image with mystical undertones, causing mysticism and lyricism to converge into a single tradition. As a result, no fourteenth-century Persian poet could write a lyrical poem
Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person.
It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
without having a flavor of mysticism forced on it by the poetic vocabulary itself. While some poets, such as Ubayd Zakani
Khwajeh Nizam al-Din Ubayd Allah al-Zakani ( fa, خواجه نظام الدین عبید الله الزاکانی, Ḵwājeh Niẓām al-Dīn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Zākānī; d. 1370), better known as Ubayd Zakani () was a Persian poet of the Mongol ...
, attempted to distance themselves from this fused mystical-lyrical tradition by writing satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
s, Hafez embraced the fusion and thrived on it. Wheeler Thackston
Wheeler McIntosh Thackston (born 1944) is an American Orientalist. He has edited and translated numerous Chaghatai, Arabic, and Persian literary and historical works.
Life
Thackston is a graduate of Princeton's Oriental Studies department, wh ...
has said of this that Hafez "sang a rare blend of human and mystic love so balanced... that it is impossible to separate one from the other".
For reasons such as that, the history of the translation of Hāfez is fraught with complications, and few translations into western languages have been wholly successful.
One of the figurative gestures for which he is most famous (and which is among the most difficult to translate) is ''īhām
''Īhām'' (ایهام) in Persian poetry, Persian, Urdu poetry, Urdu, Kurdish literature, Kurdish and Arabic poetry is a literary device in which an author uses a word, or an arrangement of words, that can be read in several ways. Each of the me ...
'' or artful pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
ning. Thus, a word such as ''gowhar'', which could mean both "essence, truth" and "pearl", would take on ''both'' meanings at once as in a phrase such as "a pearl/essential truth outside the shell of superficial existence".
Hafez often took advantage of the aforementioned lack of distinction between lyrical, mystical, and panegyric writing by using highly intellectualized, elaborate metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
s and images to suggest multiple possible meanings. For example, a couplet from one of Hafez's poems reads:
The cypress tree is a symbol both of the beloved and of a regal presence; the nightingale
The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is no ...
and birdsong evoke the traditional setting for human love. The "lessons of spiritual stations" suggest, obviously, a mystical undertone as well (though the word for "spiritual" could also be translated as "intrinsically meaningful"). Therefore, the words could signify at once a prince addressing his devoted followers, a lover courting a beloved, and the reception of spiritual wisdom.[Meisami, Julie Scott. "Allegorical Gardens in the Persian Poetic Tradition: Nezami, Rumi, Hafez." '']International Journal of Middle East Studies
The ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), a learned society.
See also
* Middle East Research and Information Project
* Association for ...
'' 17(2) (May 1985), 229-260
Satire, religion, and politics
Though Hafez is well known for his poetry, he is less commonly recognized for his intellectual and political contributions. A defining feature of Hafez' poetry is its ironic tone and the theme of hypocrisy, widely believed to be a critique of the religious and ruling establishments of the time. Persian satire developed during the 14th century, within the courts of the Mongol Empire. In this period, Hafez and other notable early satirists, such as Ubayd Zakani
Khwajeh Nizam al-Din Ubayd Allah al-Zakani ( fa, خواجه نظام الدین عبید الله الزاکانی, Ḵwājeh Niẓām al-Dīn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Zākānī; d. 1370), better known as Ubayd Zakani () was a Persian poet of the Mongol ...
, produced a body of work that has since become a template for the use of satire as a political device. Many of his critiques are believed to be targeted at the rule of Mubariz al-Din Muhammad
Mubariz al-Din Muhammad (1301-1363) ( fa, مبارز الدین محمد), was the founder of the Muzaffarid dynasty, ruling from 1314 to 1358. He was a Persian of Yemeni origins, which settled in Khurasan during the Islamic conquest. He was the ...
, specifically, towards the disintegration of important public and private institutions.
His work, particularly his imaginative references to monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
, convents
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...
, Shahneh, and muhtasib
A muḥtasib ( ar, محتسب, from the root ''ḥisbah'', or "accountability"Sami Zubaida (2005), Law and Power in the Islamic World, , pages 58-60) was "a holder of the office of al-hisbah in classical Islamic administrations", according to Ox ...
, ignored the religious taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
s of his period, and he found humor in some of his society's religious doctrines. Employing humor polemically has since become a common practice in Iranian public discourse and satire is now perhaps the de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
language of Iranian social commentary.
Modern English editions
A standard modern English edition of Hafez is ''Faces of Love'' (2012) translated by Dick Davis for Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the West ...
. ''Beloved: 81 poems from Hafez'' ( Bloodaxe Books, 2018) is a recent English selection noted by Fatemeh Keshavarz (Roshan Institute for Persian studies
Persian studies (Persian: مطالعات فارسی) is the study of the Persian language and its literature specifically. It is differentiated from Iranian studies which is a broader, more interdisciplinary subject that focuses more on the histo ...
, University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
) for preserving "that audacious and multilayered richness one finds in the originals".
Peter Avery
Peter William Avery OBE (15 May 1923 – 6 October 2008) was an eminent British scholar of Persian and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Career
Avery contributed to English language work on Persian history and literature, such ...
translated a complete edition of Hafez in English, ''The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz'', published in 2007.[ hb; pb] It was awarded Iran's Farabi prize.["Obituary: Peter Avery", ''The Daily Telegraph'', (14 October 2008), page 29, (not online 19 October 2008)] Avery's translations are published with notes explaining allusions in the text and filling in what the poets would have expected their readers to know. An abridged version exists, titled ''Hafiz of Shiraz: Thirty Poems: An Introduction to the Sufi Master''.
Divan-e-Hafez
Divan Hafez is a book containing all the remaining poems of Hafez. Most of these poems are in Persian and the most crucial part of this Divan is ghazals. There are poems in other poetic formats such as piece, ode, Masnavi and quatrain in this Divan.
There is no evidence that most of Hafez's poems were destroyed. In addition, Hafez was very famous during his lifetime; Therefore, the small number of poetry in the court indicates that he was not a prolific poet.
Hafez's Divan was probably compiled for the first time by Mohammad Glendam after his death. Of course, some unconfirmed reports indicate that Hafez published his court in 770 AH. that is, edited more than twenty years before his death.
Death and the tomb
The year of Hafez's death is 791 AH. Hafez was buried in the prayer hall of Shiraz called hafezieh
The Tomb of Hafez ( Persian: آرامگاه حافظ), commonly known as Hāfezieh (), are two memorial structures erected in the northern edge of Shiraz, Iran, in memory of the celebrated Persian poet Hafez. The open pavilion structures are si ...
. In 855 AH, after the conquest of Shiraz by Abolghasem Babar Teymouri, they built a tomb under the command of his minister, Maulana Mohammad Mamaei.
Poems by Hafez
The number in the edition by Muhammad Qazvini and Qasem Ghani (1941) is given, as well as that of Parviz Nātel-Khānlari (2nd ed. 1983):
*''Alā yā ayyoha-s-sāqī
is a '' ghazal'' (love poem) by the 14th-century poet Hafez of Shiraz. It is the opening poem in the collection of Hafez's 530 poems.
In this poem, Hafez calls for wine to soothe his difficulties in love. In a series of varied images he describ ...
'' – QG 1; PNK 1
*'' Dūš dīdam ke malā'ek'' – QG 184; PNK 179
*''Goftā borūn šodī
''Goftā borūn šodī'' is a seven-verse '' ghazal'' (love-song) by the 14th-century Persian poet Hāfez. It is no. 406 in the collection of Hafez's ''ghazals'', which are arranged alphabetically by their rhyme, in the edition of Muhammad Qazvin ...
'' – QG 406; PNK 398
*''Mazra'-ē sabz-e falak
The poem ("the Green Farmland of the Sky") is a ghazal (love song) by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz. It has been called "the second most debated ghazal of Hafiz, the first being the Shirazi Turk". It is no. 407 in the edition of ...
'' – QG 407; PNK 399
*''Naqdhā rā bovad āyā
is a short ghazal (love poem) by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz. It is no. 185 in the Qazvini-Ghani edition of Hafez's poems (1941). The poem is famous for a fine Persian miniature painting of 1585 illustrating the scene.
In this ...
'' – QG 185; PNK 180
*'' Sālhā del talab-ē jām'' – QG 142 (Ganjoor 143); PNK 136
*''Shirazi Turk
''Shirazi Turk'' is a ''ghazal (love poem)'' by the 14th-century Persian poet, Hāfez of Shiraz. It has been described as "the most familiar of Hafez's poems in the English-speaking world". It was the first poem of Hafez to appear in English, wh ...
'' – QG 3; PNK 3
*'' Sīne mālāmāl'' – QG 470; PNK 461
*''Zolf-'āšofte
is a ghazal (love-song) by the 14th-century Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz. In this poem, Hafez is visited in the night by a former beloved, and it becomes clear through metaphorical language that the encounter is successful. There is no hint of a ...
'' – QG 26; PNK 22
See also
*Diwan (poetry)
In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and South Asia, a Diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''divân'', ar, ديوان, ''dīwān'') is a collection of poems by one author, usually excluding his or her long poems ( mathnawī).
The v ...
*List of Persian poets and authors
The list is not comprehensive, but is continuously being expanded and includes Persian writers and poets from Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. This list is alphabetized by chronological or ...
*Persian metres
Persian metres are patterns of long and short syllables in Persian poetry.
Over the past 1000 years the Persian language has enjoyed a rich literature, especially of poetry. Until the advent of free verse in the 20th century, this poetry was alway ...
*Persian mysticism
Persian mysticism, or the Persian love tradition, is a traditional interpretation of existence, life and love, reliant upon revelatory and heart-felt principles in reasoning. Though partially sourced from the mystical Zoroastrian traditions of the ...
** Rumi, Persian poet
*Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
*'' The Love Songs of Hafiz''
*'' West-östlicher Diwan''
References
Sources
*
* Peter Avery
Peter William Avery OBE (15 May 1923 – 6 October 2008) was an eminent British scholar of Persian and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Career
Avery contributed to English language work on Persian history and literature, such ...
,
The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz
', 603 p. (Cambridge: Archetype, 2007).
Translated from ''Divān-e Hāfez'', Vol. 1, ''The Lyrics (Ghazals)'', edited by Parviz Natel-Khanlari
Parviz Natel Khanlari ( fa, پرویز ناتل خانلری; March 20, 1914 – August 23, 1990) was an Iranian literary scholar, linguist, author, researcher, politician, and professor at Tehran University.
Biography
Parviz Natel Khanlari g ...
(Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, 1362 AH/1983-4).
* Loloi, Parvin, ''Hafiz, Master of Persian Poetry: A Critical Bibliography - English Translations Since the Eighteenth Century'' (2004. I.B. Tauris)
* Browne, E. G., ''Literary History of Persia''. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing with a new introduction by J.T.P De Bruijn). 1997.
* Will Durant
William James Durant (; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He became best known for his work '' The Story of Civilization'', which contains 11 volumes and details the history of eastern a ...
, ''The Reformation''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957
* Erkinov, A., “Manuscripts of the works by classical Persian authors (Hāfiz, Jāmī, Bīdil): Quantitative Analysis of 17th-19th c. Central Asian Copies”. ''Iran: Questions et connaissances. Actes du IVe Congrès Européen des études iraniennes organisé par la Societas Iranologica Europaea'', Paris, 6-10 Septembre 1999. vol. II: Périodes médiévale et moderne. ahiers de Studia Iranica. 26 M.Szuppe (ed.). Association pour l`avancement des études iraniennes-Peeters Press. Paris-Leiden, 2002, pp. 213–228.
* Hafez, ''The Poems of Hafez''. Trans. Reza Ordoubadian. Ibex Publishers, 2006
* Hafez, ''The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz''. Trans. Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. White Cloud Press, 1995
* Hafez, ''The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door: Thirty Poems of Hafez.'' Trans. Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn. HarperCollins, 2008, p. 69.
* Hafez, ''Divan-i-Hafiz'', translated by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke, Ibex Publishers, Inc., 2007.
*
*
* Jan Rypka, ''History of Iranian Literature''. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 .
* Chopra, R. M., "Great Poets of Classical Persian", June 2014, Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, .
*
*
*
*
External links
English translations of Poetry by Hafez
Hafiz Selections of his poetry on Allspirit
Hafez in English from ''Poems Found in Translation'' website
Life and Poetry of Hafez from "Hafiz on Love" website
Persian texts and resources
''Hafez Divan'' with readings in Persian
Scan of 1560 ''Dīwān Hāfiz'' manuscript on archive.org
An online Flash application of his poems in Persian.
Text-Based Fal e Hafez
A light-weight website ranked 1 on search engines for Fal e Hafez.
Fale Hafez iPhone App
an iPhone application for reading poems and taking 'faal'.
''Radio Programs on Hafez's life and poetry'
English language resources
*
*
, a translation of the Divan-i Hafiz by Peter Avery
Peter William Avery OBE (15 May 1923 – 6 October 2008) was an eminent British scholar of Persian and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Career
Avery contributed to English language work on Persian history and literature, such ...
, published b
Archetype
2007 hb; pb
by Iraj Bashiri
Iraj Bashiri ( fa, ایرج بشیری; born July 31, 1940) is professor of history at the University of Minnesota, United States, and one of the leading scholars in the fields of Central Asian studies and Iranian Studies. Fluent in English, Per ...
, University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
.
''Hafiz, Shams al-Din Muhammad''
A Biography by Iraj Bashiri
1979, by Iraj Bashiri
on the ''Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encyc ...
'' (Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
).
HAFEZ – Encyclopaedia Iranica
*
*
Other
Hafez Tomb in 2012 Nowruz Celebration
Photos.
*
{{Authority control
14th-century Persian-language poets
Sufi poets
Mystic poets
People from Shiraz
1320s births
1390 deaths
Angelic visionaries
Injuid-period poets
14th-century Iranian people