Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez Shirazi
Arts & Music • Historical Archive • 🇮🇷 Iran • 7 views

Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez Shirazi 🇮🇷

خواجه شمس‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی (Known as "The Tongue of the Hidden (Lisan al-Ghayb) / Master of the Ghazal")
Persian Lyric Poet, Hafiz of the Quran, Sufi Mystic
Born 1315 CE 🇮🇷 Shiraz (Fars), Iran
Passed Away 1390 CE Shiraz, Iran
Lifespan ~75 years old
7 views
Notice / Correction
"Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with a love like that: it lights the whole sky. From the banquet of existence, what is it that remains? Only the eternal echo of love."

Archival Overview

The undisputed supreme master of the Persian ghazal, whose Divan weaves mystical ecstasy, spiritual yearning, critique of hypocrisy, and sensual beauty into the most beloved poetry in the Persian-speaking world.

Biographical Record

Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez (c. 1315–1390 CE), known reverently as Hafez ('He who memorized the Quran') and Lisan al-Ghayb ('The Tongue of the Unseen'), lived almost his entire life in the rose gardens and cypress groves of Shiraz. He witnessed wars between rival dynasties, finding eternal sanctuary in poetic mysticism.

Hafez brought the Persian ghazal (love lyric) to its highest peak of aesthetic refinement, musicality, and symbolic ambiguity. His verses play effortlessly between earthly love and divine intoxication, celebrating the Tavern of Ruin (*Kharabat*) while relentlessly lampooning religious hypocrisy. His Divan is so revered that Iranians practice Fa'l-e Hafez (bibliomancy) with his book on Nowruz and Yalda night.

Key Life Milestones

c. 1360 CE

Perfection of the Mystical Ghazal Form

Elevated the ghazal to its unmatched poetic apex, interweaving sacred divine longing with romantic allegory.

1387 CE

Legendary Encounter with Tamerlane in Shiraz

Famously answered conqueror Timur's interrogation regarding his verse trading Samarkand and Bukhara for a beloved's mole.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Tomb of Hafez (Hafezieh)
Shiraz, Iran
GPS: 29.6258, 52.5583
View on Memory Atlas
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