Hafez, also spelled Hafiz, in full Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz or Khwaje Shams-od-Din Mohammad Hafez-e Shirazi, (b. 1315, Shiraz, Muzaffarid Persia [Iran] — d. 1390, Shiraz, Timurid Empire [Iran]), is one of the finest lyric poets of Persia.
Shams al-Din was born in Shiraz in Muzaffarid Persia (what is today Iran). At an early age, Shams al-Din memorized the Qur'an and was given the title of Hafez, -- the "memorizer". Shams al-Din would later used the title "Hafez" as his pen name.
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). However, Hafez's work flourished most under the 27-year rule of Jalal ud-Din Shah Shuja (Shah Shuja). About 1368-69, Hafez fell out of favor with Shah Shuja for mocking inferior poets (Shah Shuja wrote poetry himself and may have taken the comments personally). Incurring the disfavor of Shah Shuja forced Hafez to flee from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd.
Hafez did not regain his position until 20 years later, just before his death. Hafez later exchanged letters and poetry with Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, who invited him to Sonargaon. But Hafez did not go to Bengal.
Hafez spent the last three years of his life under the rule of Timur (1336-1405), a descendant of the Mongols and the founder of the Timurid dynasty, who conquered Shiraz in 1387. Hafez resumed writing poetry, this time for the court of Timur in Shiraz. Hafez died in Shiraz in 1390.
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 Andre 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.
Today, Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran, and his works can be found in almost every Iranian home. In tribute to the continued influence of his poetry, October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran.
In his poetry, there are many echoes of historical events as well as biographical descriptions and details of life in Shiraz. One of the guiding principles of his life was Sufism, the Islamic mystical movement that demanded of its adherents complete devotion to the pursuit of union with the ultimate reality.
The collected works of Hafez are regarded by many Iranians as a pinnacle of Persian literature. 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" -- expressing a viewpoint which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms. Hafez's poetry is also associated with the medieval use of the term "theosophical" -- the term "theosophy" in the 13th and 14th centuries being used to indicate mystical work by authors only inspired by the holy books (as distinguished from inspiration from theology). Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry known as ghazals. The literary genre of lyric poetry (ghazals) was deemed to be the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems.
The themes of Hafez's ghazals include the beloved, faith and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals, Hafez 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. His influence on Persian speakers appears in divination by his poems and in the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art and Persian calligraphy. Adaptations, imitations and translations of his poems exist in all major languages such as this one entitled The Riddle of Life:
With last night's wine still singing in my head,
I sought the tavern at the break of day,
Though half the world was still asleep in bed,
The harp and flute were up and in full swing,
And a most pleasant morning sound made they,
Already was the wine cup on the wing
"Reason", said I, "'tis past the time to start,
If you would reach your daily destination,
The holy city of intoxication."
So did pack him off, and he depart
With a stout flask for fellow-traveller.
Left to myself, the tavern-wrench I spied,
And sought to win her love by speaking fair,
Alas! she turned upon me, scornful-eyed,
And mocked my foolish hopes of winning her.
Said she, her arching eyebrows like a bow:
"Thou mark for all the shafts of evil tongues!
Thou shalt not round my middle clasp me so,
Like my good girdle -- not for all thy songs! --
So long as thou in all created things
Seest but thyself the center and the end,
Go spread thy dainty nets for other wings --
Too high the Anca's nest for thee, my friend."
Then took I shelter from that stormy sea
In the good ark of wine: yet, woe is me!
Saki and comrade and minstrel all by turns,
She is of maidens and compendium
Who my poor heart in such a fashion spurns.
Self, Hafiz, self! That must thou overcome!
Hearken the wisdom of the tavern-daughter!
Vain little baggage-- well, upon my word!
Thou fairy figment made of clay and water,
As busy with thy beauty as a bird.
Well, Hafiz, Life's a riddle -- give it up:
There is no answer to it but this cup.
Ḥafeẓ’s principal verse form, one that he brought to a perfection never achieved before or since, was the ghazal, a lyric poem of 6 to 15 couplets linked by unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas. Traditionally, the ghazal had dealt with love and wine, motifs that, in their association with ecstasy and freedom from restraint, lent themselves naturally to the expression of Sufi ideas. Ḥafeẓ’s achievement was to give these conventional subjects a freshness and subtlety that completely relieves his poetry of tedious formalism. An important innovation credited to Ḥafeẓ was the use of the ghazal instead of the qasidah (ode) in panegyrics. Ḥafeẓ also reduced the panegyric element of his poems to a mere one or two lines, leaving the remainder of the poem for his ideas. The extraordinary popularity of Ḥafeẓ’s poetry in all Persian-speaking lands stems from his simple and often colloquial though musical language, free from artificial virtuosity, and his unaffected use of homely images and proverbial expressions. Above all, his poetry is characterized by love of humanity, contempt for hypocrisy and mediocrity, and an ability to universalize everyday experience and to relate it to the mystic’s unending search for union with God. His appeal in the West is indicated by the numerous translations of his poems.
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Avery, Peter (2007). The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz; Cambridge, Archetype.
Browne, E.G. (1906, reprinted 1956). Literary History of Persia; Cambridge University Press.
Chopra, R.M. (2014). "Great Poets of Classical Persian"; Sparrow Publication, Kolkata,
Durant, Will (1957). The Reformation; New York: Simon & Schuster.
Hafez (Translated by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke) (2007). Divan-i-Hafiz; Ibex Publishers, Inc.
Hafez (Trans. Robert Bly and Leonard Lewisohn) (2008). The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door: Thirty Poems of Hafez; HarperCollins.
Hafez (Trans. Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.) (1995). The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty ghazals from the Diwan of Hafiz. White Cloud Press.
Lapidus, Ira M. (2014). A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press.
Limbert, John W. (2011). Shiraz in the Age of Hafez: The Glory of a Medieval Persian City; University of Washington Press.
Loloi, Parvin (2004). Hafiz, Master of Persian Poetry: A Critical Bibliography - English Translations Since the Eighteenth Century; I.B. Tauris
Miles, Jack (general ed.) (2015). The Norton Anthology of World Religions, New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.{Hafez (Trans., Richard Le Gallienne). The Riddle of Life.}
Rypka, Jan (1968). History of Iranian Literature; Reidel Publishing Company.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinomianism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Div%C4%81n_of_Hafez
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hafez
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