HAFIZ. Shams-ud-din Mohammed, better known by his takhallus or nom de plume of Hafiz, one of the most famous writers of Persian lyrical poetry, was born at Shiraz, the capital of Fars, in the early part of the 8th century of the Mohammedan era (c. A.D. 1300) . The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but he attained a ripe old age and died in 791 A.H. (A.D. 1388), as given in the chronogram which is engraved on his tomb. He early devoted himself to the study of poetry and theology, and also became learned in mystic philosophy, which he studied un der Shaik Mahmud `Attar, chief of an order of dervishes. Hafiz afterwards enrolled himself in the same order and became a pro fessor of Koranic exegesis in a college which his friend and patron Haji Kiwam-ud-din, the vizier, specially founded for him. This was probably the reason of his adopting the sobriquet of Hafiz ("one who remembers"), which is technically applied to any person who has learned the Koran by heart. The restraints of an ascetic life seem to have been very little to Hafiz's taste, and his loose conduct and winebibbing propensities 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 hypocrisy. Hafiz's fame as a poet was soon rapidly spread throughout the Mohammedan world. He was, like most Persians, a Shiite by religion, believing in the transmission of the office of Imam (head of the Muslim Church) in the family of Ali, cousin of the prophet, and rejecting the Hadith (traditional sayings) of Mohammed, which form the Sunna or supplementary code of Mohammedan ceremonial 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 Turkish editor and commentator, who was himself a rigid Sunnite.
His principal work is the Diwan, that is, a collection of short odes or sonnets called ghazals, and consisting of from five to sixteen baits or couplets each, all the couplets in each ode hav ing the same rhyme in the last hemistich, and the last couplet always introducing the poet's own noon de plume. Hafiz was a professed dervish and Sufi, and his ghazals were in all probability published from a takia, and arranged with at least a view to Sufiistic interpretation. At the same time it is ridiculous to sup pose that the glowing imagery, the gorgeous and often tender descriptions of natural beauties, the fervent love passages, and the roystering drinking songs were composed in cool 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 people where rigid conventionality demanded that his free and spontaneous thoughts should be recast in an artificial mould.
Besides the Hafiz wrote a number of other poems ; the Leipzig edition of his works contains S73 ghazals (forming the Diwan), 42 kit`as or fragments, 69 ruba`iyat or tetrastics, 6 rnasnaviyat or poems in rhyming couplets, 2 kasaid, idylls or panegyrics, and 1 mukhammes or poem in five-line strophes. Other editions contain several tar ji`-band or poems with a refrain. The whole Diwan was translated into English prose by H. Wilber force Clarke in 1891. Other selections are by S. Robinson (1875), A. Rogers (1889), J. H. McCarthy (1893) and Gertrude L. Bell (1897) . The principal German versions are by von Hammer Purgstall ( 181 2) ; a rhyming and rhythmical translation of a large portion of Hafiz's works by Vincenz von Rosenzweig of Vienna (Vienna, 1858), which contains also the Persian text and notes; Der Diwan des Schemseddin Muhammed Hafis, by G. H. F. Nesselmann (Berlin, 1865), in which the rhyming system of the original is limited. Besides these, the reader may consult d'Her belot, Bibliotheque orientale, article "Hafiz"; Sir William Ouse ley's Oriental Collections ; A Specimen of Persian Poetry, or Odes of Hafiz, by John Richardson (London, 1802) ; Biographical Notices of Persian Poets, by Sir Gore Ouseley (Oriental Translation Fund, 1846) ; and an excellent article by Professor E. B. Cowell in Macmillan's Magazine (No. 177, July 1874) ; J. A. Vullers, Vitae poetarum Persicorum (1839, trans lated from Daulatshah) ; S. Robinson, Persian Poetry for English Readers (1883). The best edition of the text is perhaps that edited by Hermann Brockhaus of Leipzig (1854-1856). See also H. Ethe in Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, ii. (Strassburg, 1896) ; P. Horn, Geschichte der Literatur (Leipzig, 1901).