MOHA3IMED-SHEMS-EDDIN, a celebrated Persian poet, was born at Shims, at the beginning of the 14th century of the Christian sera. From his earliest years he received a lettered educa tion ; end paid great attention to the study of religion and Mussulman jurisprudence. He afterwards cultivated poetry, and became so cele brated that the Sultan of Baghdad Invited him to his court. HAfiz however appears to have remained in his native town the greater part of his life. Ilia Persian biographers relate an interview he had with the celebrated Timur (Tamerlane), who conquered Shirai in 1387. The date of his death is uncertain; it is placed by Daulet Shih, in 1359. A splendid monument was erected over his grave, which is described by Krempfer (' Amienitates Exoticre,' p. 301 ); and Franklin (' Observations on a Tour from Bengal to Persia,' pp. 90-97) gives us an account of another monument erected to his memory in more modern times.
The poems of HAflz, like those of Anacreon, celebrate the pleasures of love and wine. They have always been greatly admired iu Persia; though many Mohammedans have condemned them for their irre ligious and licentious tendency. The admirers of HAS., on the other hand, contend that his poems are not to be understood in a literal, but in a figurative or allegorical sense ; and that they express in emblematical language the love of the creature to the Creator. The Fed of the Salle, who interpret the poems of Hisfiz in this manner, possess many similar poems. They maintain that by wine he meant devotion, by perfume the hope of divine favour, and some have gone to far as to compose a dictionary of words in the language of the SAN (see Sir W. Jones, 'On the Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindus," Asiatic Researches,' v. 3). But we are not sure that soy of the poems of HAS. ought to be interpreted in this manner. Sir W. Jones, who was a great advocate for such a mode of interpretation, remarks, in the essay referred to above, " It has been made a question whether the poems of 11Afiz must be taken in a literal or figurative sense; bat the question does not admit of a general and direct answer; for even the moat enthusiastic of his commentators allow that some of them are to be taken literally, and his editors ought to have dis tinguished them, instead of mixing the profane with the divine, by a childish arrangement according to the alphabetical order of the rhymes" (p. 172.3). We are aware that many Europeans justify the
allegorical mode of interpreting the poems of I lAfiz, by a reference to Solomon'a Song and the Sanacrit poem Cita Ocriuda' by Jsyaddva. It is however very doubtful whether these poems ought to be inter preted in an allegorical manner. The poems of Htlfiz have had a great number of Stiff commentators, such as Shuri, Seid Ali, Lamci, Sururi, and Shemei ; but the most celebrated are the Turkish com mentators Feridun and Sudi.
The poems of Hifi. were arranged after his death, by Seid Ramona AnvAri, and were entitled the 'Divan.' The 'Divan ' contain., accord ing to the best manuscripts, 571 odes, called ghazels. They were published in the original Persian, at Calcutta, 1 vol. foL, 1791; this edition contains only 557 ghazols, and 7 caasideba, or elegies. Rewuski published a few of the odes with a Latin translation and the com mentary of Sudi, under the title of 'Specimen Poeseos Asiatics°, sive Haphyzi Ghazelae, sive oche sexdeelm; Vienna, 1771. Several of the odes are inserted in Sir W. Jones's 'Commentarii Poesos Asintiem; ' Wabl's 'Neu Arabische Anthologie,' 8vo, Leip., 1791 ; Ousley's ' Per sian Miscellanies,' 4to, Loud., 1791 ; Asiatic Miscellany,' 2 vols. Cabo., 1785-86. The whole 'Divfm ' was translated into German by Von Hammer, Tithing., 1812; and several of the odes have been trans lated into English by Richardson, ' Specimen of Persian Poetry, or the odes of Hafiz, with an English translation and paraphrase,' chiefly from the ' Specimen l'oeseos Aeistiese of Baron Rewuski,' Lend., 1774 ; Nott, ' Select Odes of HAfiz translated into English verso,' 4to., Lond., 1787; II indley, 'Persian Lyrics, or scattered poems from the Dia-an t-MHz; 4to, Loud., 1800.