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HAFIZ

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 813 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HAFIZ . Shams-ud-din Mahommed, better known by his takhallus or nom de plume of Hafiz, was one of the most celebrated writers of See also:

Persian lyrical See also:poetry. He was See also:born at See also:Shiraz, the See also:capital of See also:Fars, in the See also:early See also:part of the 8th See also:century of the See also:Mahommedan era, that is to say, in the 14th of our own. The exact date of his See also:birth is uncertain, but he attained a ripe old See also:age and died in 791 A.H. (A.D. 1388). This is the date given in the chronogram which is engraved on his See also:tomb, although several Persian biographers give a different See also:year. Very little is actually known about his See also:life, which appears to have been passed in retirement in Shiraz, of which he always speaks in terms of affectionate admiration. He was a subject of the Muzaffar princes, who ruled in Shiraz, Yazd, Kirman and Ispahan, until the See also:dynasty was overthrown by Timur (Tamerlane). Of these princes his especial patrons were Shah Shuja' and Shah Mansur. He early devoted himself to the study of poetry and See also:theology, and also became learned in mystic See also:philosophy, which he studied under Shaik Mahmud 'See also:Attar, See also:chief of an See also:order of dervishes. Hafiz afterwards enrolled himself in the same order and became a See also:professor of Koranic exegesis in a See also:college which his friend and See also:patron Haji Kiwam-ud-din, the See also:vizier, specially founded for him.

This was probably the See also:

reason of his adopting the See also:sobriquet of Hafiz (" one who remembers "), which is technic-ally applied to any See also:person who has learned the See also:Koran by See also:heart. The restraints of an ascetic life seem to have been very little to Hafiz's See also:taste, and his loose conduct and See also:wine-bibbing propensities See also:drew upon him the severe censure of his monastic colleagues. In revenge he satirizes them unmercifully in his verses, and seldom loses an opportunity of alluding to their See also:hypocrisy. Hafiz's fame as a poet was soon rapidly spread throughout the Mahommedan See also:world, and several powerful monarchs sent him presents and pressing invitations to visit them. Amongst others he was invited by Mahmud Shah Bahmani, who reigned in the southof See also:India. After See also:crossing the See also:Indus and passing through See also:Lahore he reached Hurmuz, and embarked on See also:board a See also:vessel sent for him by the See also:Indian See also:prince. He seems, however, to have been a See also:bad sailor, and, having invented an excuse for being put ashore, made the best of his way back to Shiraz. Some See also:biographies narrate a See also:story of an interview between Hafiz and the invader Timur. The latter sent for him and asked angrily, " See also:Art See also:thou he who was so bold as to offer my two See also:great cities See also:Samarkand and See also:Bokhara for the See also:black See also:mole on thy See also:mistress's cheek?" alluding to a well-known See also:verse in one of his odes. " Yes, sire," replied Hafiz, " and it is by such acts of generosity that I have brought myself to such a See also:state of destitution that I have now to solicit your See also:bounty." Timur was so pleased at his ready wit that he dismissed the poet with a handsome See also:present. Unfortunately for the truth of this story Timur did not See also:capture Shiraz till A.U. 1393, while the latest date that can be assigned to Hafiz's See also:death is 1391.

Of his private life little or nothing is known. One of his poems is said to See also:

record the death of his wife, another that of a favourite unmarried son, and several others speak of his love for a girl called See also:Sheikh i Nabat, " See also:Sugar-See also:cane See also:branch," and this is almost all of his See also:personal See also:history that can be gathered from his writings. He was, like most Persians, a Shi'ite by See also:religion, believing in the transmission of the See also:office of See also:Imam (See also:head of the Moslem See also:Church) in the See also:family of See also:Ali, See also:cousin of the See also:prophet, and rejecting the Hadith (traditional sayings) of See also:Mahomet, which See also:form the Sunna or supplementary See also:code of Mahommedan ceremonial See also:law. One of his odes which contains a verse in praise of Ali is engraved on the poet's tomb, but is omitted by Sudi, the See also:Turkish editor and commentator, who was himself a rigid Sunnite. Hafiz's heretical opinions and dissipated life caused difficulties to be raised by the ecclesiastical authorities on his death as to his interment in consecrated ground. The question was at length settled by Hafiz's own See also:works, which had then already begun to be used, as they are now throughout the See also:East, for the purposes of See also:divination, in the same manner as See also:Virgil was employed in the See also:middle ages for the divination called Sortes Virgilianae. Opening the See also:book at See also:random after pronouncing the customary See also:formula asking for See also:inspiration, the objectors See also:hit upon the following verse—" Turn not away thy See also:foot from the bier of Hafiz, for though immersed in See also:sin, he will be admitted into See also:Paradise." He was accordingly buried in the centre of a small See also:cemetery at Shiraz, now included in an enclosure called the Hafiziyeh. His See also:principal See also:work is the Diwan, that is, a collection of See also:short odes or sonnets called ghazals, and consisting of from five to sixteen baits or couplets each, all the couplets in each See also:ode having the same See also:rhyme in the last hemistich, and the last See also:couplet always introducing the poet's own nom de plume. The whole of these are arranged in alphabetical order, an arrangement which certainly facilitates reference but makes it absolutely impossible to ascertain their See also:chronological order, and therefore detracts from their value as a means of throwing See also:light upon the growth and development of his See also:genius or the incidents of his career. They are often held together by a very slender See also:thread of continuous thought, and few See also:editions agree exactly in the order of the couplets. Still, a careful study of them, especially from the point of view indicated by the Sufiistic See also:system of philosophy, will always show that a single See also:idea does run throughout the whole. The nature of these poems has been the subject of much discussion in the See also:West, some scholars seeing in their anacreontic utterances nothing but sensuality and See also:materialism, while others, following the See also:Oriental school, maintain that they are wholly and entirely mystic and philosophic.

Something between the two would probably be nearer the truth. It must be remembered that Hafiz was a professed See also:

dervish and Sufi, and that his ghazals were in all See also:probability published from a takia, and arranged with at least a view to Sufiistic See also:interpretation. At the same See also:time it is ridiculous to suppose that the glowing imagery, the gorgeous and often See also:tender descriptions of natural beauties, the fervent love passages, and the roystering drinking songs were composed in cool See also:blood or with deliberate ascetic purpose. The beauty of Hafiz's poetry is that it is natural. It is the outcome of a fervent soul and a lofty genius delighting in nature and enjoying life; and it is the poet's misfortune that he lived in an age and amongst a See also:people where rigid conventionality demanded that his See also:free and spontaneous thoughts should be recast in an artificial See also:mould. Besides the Diwan, Hafiz wrote a number of other poems; the See also:Leipzig edition of his works contains573 ghazals (forming theDiwan), 42 See also:kit'as or fragments, 69 ruba'iyat or tetrastics, 6 masnaviyat or poems in rhyming couplets, 2 kasaid, idylls or panegyrics, and i mukhammes or poem in five-See also:line strophes. Other editions contain several tarji'-See also:band or poems with a refrain. The whole Diwan was translated into See also:English See also:prose by H. See also:Wilberforce See also:Clarke in 1891, with introduction and exhaustive commentary and bibliography; a few rhyming versions of single poems by See also:Sir See also:William See also:Jones, J. See also:Nott, J. See also:Hindley, See also:Falconer, &c., are to be found scattered through the pages of the Oriental See also:Miscellany and other See also:periodicals, and a See also:fine edition containing a verse rendering of the principal poems by H. Bicknell appeared in 1875.

Other selections by S. See also:

Robinson (1875), A. See also:Rogers (1889), J. H. M'Carthy (1893), and Gertrude L. See also:Bell (1897). The principal See also:German versions are by von See also:Hammer Purgstall (1812), which gave the first impulse to See also:Goethe's Westosllicher Diwan; a rhyming and rhythmical See also:translation of a large portion of Hafiz's works by Vincenz von Rosenzweig of See also:Vienna (Vienna, 1858), which contains also the Persian See also:text and notes; Der Diwan See also:des Schemseddin Muhammed Hafis, by G. H. F. Nesselmann (See also:Berlin, 1865), in which the rhyming system of the See also:original is imitated. Besides these, the reader may consult d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque orientale, See also:article Hafiz "; Sir William See also:Ouseley's Oriental Collections (1797–1798); A Specimen of Persian Poetry, or Odes of Hafiz, by See also:John See also:Richardson (See also:London, 18o2); See also:Biographical Notices of Persian Poets, by Sir See also:Gore Ouseley (Oriental Translation Fund, 1846); and an excellent article by Professor E. B.

See also:

Cowell in See also:Macmillan's See also:Magazine (No. 177, See also:July 1874); J. A. Vullers, Vitae poetarum Persicorum (1839, translated from Daulatshah); S. Robinson, Persian Poetry for English Readers (1883). The best edition of the text is perhaps that edited by See also:Hermann See also:Brockhaus of Leipzig (1854–1856), which is based on the recension of the Turkish editor Sudi, and contains his commentary in Turkish on the first eighty ghazals. See also H. Ethe in Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, ii. (See also:Strassburg, 1896) ; P. See also:Horn, Geschichte der persischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1901). (E. H.

End of Article: HAFIZ

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