Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, son of Bahaʾ-al-Din, is the most famous poet and Sufi in the 8th century and one of the forth greatest Persian poets in the world. His father was a merchant, who immigrated from Isfahan to Shiraz during the Salghurids of Fars and her mother was from Kazeroun. According to Moḥammad Golandām, who lived in the same time and compiled Hafez's Divān, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad mastered sciences by participating in Ghavameddin Abdullah’s classes. He studied and memorized holy Quran, so he was given the title of Hafez. There is not a lot of information about his family. There are some stories about his love for Shakh-e Nabat, whom he got married to. He mentioned the loosing of his beloved in 764 AH when he was 38 and also, there are some references to the death of his child in his poems. Thirty years after his death an edition of his Divān, which includes his almost 500 ghazals, was compiled for the first time. It can be said that his poems were read more than any other poet’s poetry throughout the East, Middle and Far East, India, Central Asia, Anatolia, and the Ottoman Empire during last 600 years that constitutes half of the history of Persian poetry and literature. Hafez was fortunate enough to perceive the fact that his poetry was appreciated and he himself called it Jahangir which means 'conqueror of the world', 'world-conqueror' or 'world-seizer' in Persian. He wrote:
“Lofty, is the rank of verse and world - captivating.
So that, full of pearls, thy mouth the ocean - king may make“
By “the ocean – king” he means Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, one of Indian kings. Although, he means that his poetry can do Tayy al-Arḍ (traversing the earth without moving in the twinkling of an eye):
“In the path of verse, behold the traveling of place and of time
This child ode of one night, the path of travel of one year to Bangal Gothe.”
Gothe (German poet), Dante Alighieri (Italian poet), and André Gide (French author) are some the western writers and poets, who were influenced and attracted by Hafez’s poems. Inspiring by Hafez, Gothe, one of the greatest librarians in Germany, composed a collection of poems entitled West-Eastern Diwan. He wrote about Hafez.
Contrary to his birthday, there is no disagreement about the date of his death. He died in 792 AH and his tomb is located in Shiraz.
