19 Facts About Hafez

Hafez's works are often found in the homes of Persian speakers, who learn his poems by heart and use them as everyday proverbs and sayings.

Hafez is best known for his Divan, a collection of his surviving poems probably compiled after his death.

Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry or ghazals, which is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems.

Hafez was born in Shiraz, Iran and identified as a Sufi Muslim.

Early tazkiras mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable.

Hafez was given the title of Hafez, which he later used as his pen name.

Two of the most highly regarded modern editions of Hafez's Divan are compiled by Allame Mohammad Qazvini and Qasem Ghani and by Parviz Natel-Khanlari.

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.

Hafez exchanged letters and poetry with Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, who invited him to Sonargaon though he could not make it.

Hafez was a contemporary of the famous Sunni Shaf'iite theologian Adud al-Din al-Iji - who he praised as one of the five notables of Farz.

Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad to India.

Hafez's work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones.

Hafez's tomb is "crowded with devotees" who visit the site and the atmosphere is "festive" with visitors singing and reciting their favorite Hafez poems.

For reasons such as that, the history of the translation of Hafez is fraught with complications, and few translations into western languages have been wholly successful.

Hafez often took advantage of the aforementioned lack of distinction between lyrical, mystical, and panegyric writing by using highly intellectualized, elaborate metaphors and images to suggest multiple possible meanings.

Hafez had been influenced by ancient Iran and Zoroastrian religion and the terminology of this religion has been consistently used in his poems.

Beloved: 81 poems from Hafez translated by Mario Petrucci, is a recent English selection, noted by Fatemeh Keshavarz for preserving "that audacious and multilayered richness one finds in the originals".

Divan Hafez is a book containing all the remaining poems of Hafez.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Hafez published his court in AH 770.