World History
Hafiz, a pen name for Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Shirazi, was born in Shiraz in present-day Iran. Following the death of his father, a merchant, Hafiz lived in poverty until his poetry earned him the patronage of several Persian rulers.
He is perhaps the most admired poet among Persians, who, up to the present day, memorize and quote extensively from his lyric poems. He is best known for his over 500 Ghazals (sonnets) collected in his Diwan. His lyricism is captured in the following portions of the sonnet “My Birdâ€:
Hafiz had an enormous influence on Arabic and Turkish literature and his poems have also been translated into many Western languages. Authors as diverse as the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admired the poetry of Hafiz.
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World History
Hafiz - Persian Poet
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| Haï¬z - Persian Poet |
Hafiz, a pen name for Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Shirazi, was born in Shiraz in present-day Iran. Following the death of his father, a merchant, Hafiz lived in poverty until his poetry earned him the patronage of several Persian rulers.
He is perhaps the most admired poet among Persians, who, up to the present day, memorize and quote extensively from his lyric poems. He is best known for his over 500 Ghazals (sonnets) collected in his Diwan. His lyricism is captured in the following portions of the sonnet “My Birdâ€:
My soul is a scared bird, the highest heaven his nextHafiz often wrote about his favored hometown of Shiraz. Other poems are highly erotic, while others are clearly influenced by Islamic mysticism or Sufism. His many references to wine and drinking from the cup are believed by many to be symbolic of Sufibelief in mystical intoxication. Others argue that the language is not symbolic.
Fretting within its body-bars, it finds on earth its nest
Hafiz had an enormous influence on Arabic and Turkish literature and his poems have also been translated into many Western languages. Authors as diverse as the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admired the poetry of Hafiz.
- Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio Boccaccio is the most recent of the three “great minds†of 14th-century Italian humanism, after Dante Alighieri and Petrarch. He was a poet, a scientist, and, most important, a creator of the early modern short story genre....
- Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam Omar Khayyam was born in Nishapur, Persia (present-day Iran); his name means “tent maker,†the likely profession of his father. During his lifetime he was known, not as a poet, but as a mathematician and astronomer. He studied...
- Su Shi (su Shih)
Su Shi (Su Shih)One of the most famous and easily recognizable voices in China’s 3,000-year-old history, the great poet Su Shi left behind an impressive body of writing that underscores the major themes of Chinese civilization. In Su Shi’s...
- Sufism
Meeting with Jalal al-Din Rumi Sufism is Islamic mysticism. The word derives from the Arabic tasawwuf meaning “to wear wool†or “to seek purification.†Early Sufis, or practitioners of Sufism, often wore simple wool capes and sought...
- Drunks Of War
Drunks of War. This is an article from the July/August 2003 issue of Modern Drunkard Magazine. In it, the author (Rich English) argues that "Societies possessing a robust and realistic attitude toward intoxication have produced mightier warriors than...