What has been already said generally at the beginning Ḥáfiẓ of Shíráz of this chapter as to the extraordinary dearth of trustworthy information concerning the poets of this period applies especially to the most eminent and famous of them, and indeed of all the poets of Persia, the immortal and incomparable Ḥáfiẓ of Shíráz, entitled by his admirers Lisánu'l-Ghayb (“the Tongue of the Unseen”) and Tarjumánu'l-Asrár (“the Interpreter of Mysteries”). Notices of him naturally occur in all the numerous bio­graphies of poets composed subsequently to his death, beginning with Dawlatsháh, who wrote just a century after this event, down to quite modern compilations, like Riḍá-qulí Khán's Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá and Riyáḍu'l-'Árifín; but these contain few trustworthy biographical details, and con­sist for the most part of anecdotes connected with certain verses of his poems, and probably in most cases, if not all, invented to explain or illustrate them. The only con­temporary mention of Ḥáfiẓ with which I am acquainted is contained in the Preface of his friend and the collector and editor of his poems, Muḥammad Gulandám, who, after expatiating on the poet's incomparable genius, his catholic sympathy, and the celebrity attained by his verse even in his lifetime, not only in Persia, from Fárs to Khurásán and Ádharbáyján, but in India, Turkistán and Mesopotamia, proceeds as follows:

“However, diligent study of the Qur'án, constant attendance to the King's business, the annotation of the Kashsháf * and the Miṣbáḥ, * the Muḥammad Gulandám's account of Ḥáfiẓ perusal of the Maṭáli' * and the Miftáḥ, * the acquisition of canons of literary criticism and the appreciation of Arabic poems prevented him from collecting his verses and odes, or editing and arranging his poems. The writer of these lines, this least of men, Muḥammad Gulandám, when he was attending the lectures of our Master, that most eminent teacher Qiwámu'd-Dín 'Abdu'lláh, used constantly and repeatedly to urge, in the course of conversation, that he (Ḥáfiẓ) should gather together all these rare gems in one concatenation and assemble all these lustrous pearls on one string, so that they might become a necklace of great price for his contemporaries or a girdle for the brides of his time. With this request, however, he was unable to comply, alleging lack of appreciation on the part of his contemporaries as an excuse, until he bade farewell to this life…in A.H. 791” (A.D. 1389).

The notice of Ḥáfiẓ contained in that agreeable work of Notices of the life of Ḥáfiẓ Sir Gore Ouseley, the Biographical Notices of Persian Poets, * gives most of the anecdotes connected with verses in his Díwán to which I have already alluded; while an admirable account of the times in which he lived and the general character of his poetry is to be found in the Introduction to Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell's Poems from the Divan of Hafiz (London, 1897), which must be reckoned as the most skilful attempt to render accessible to English readers the works of this Shiblí's critical study of Ḥáfiẓ poet. On the whole, however, the best and most complete critical study of Ḥáfiẓ with which I am acquainted is contained in Shiblí Nu'mání's Urdú work on Persian Poetry entitled Shi'ru'l-'Ajam , * already repeatedly quoted in this chapter. I feel that I cannot do better than summarize at any rate that portion of this notice which deals with the poet's life, and the few facts concerning his personal circumstances and relations with his contemporaries which can be deduced from his poems, indicating at the same time the Persian biographical sources to which the learned author refers. Amongst these he specially mentions the well-known Ḥabíbu's-Siyar of Khwándamír * and the May-khána (“Wine-tavern”) of 'Abdu'n-Nabí Fakhru'z-Zamán (com­piled in 1036/1626-7, in the reign of Jahángír), of which Persian biographies of Ḥáfiẓ latter I have no copy at hand. The Persian biographical works which I have consulted, and which yield but scanty results (since, as Shiblí points out, they generally copy from one another and often make statements not merely unsupported by any respect­able evidence but mutually destructive) are Dawlatsháh's “Memoirs of the Poets”; Jámí's Baháristán * and Nafaḥátu'l-Uns; * Luṭf 'Alí Beg's Átash-kada (“Fire-temple”), which mainly follows Dawlatsháh; the Haft Iqlím; and the quite modern Majma'u'l-Fuṣaḥá (“Assembly of the Eloquent”), which gives several fresh particulars of doubtful authenticity, such as that Ḥáfiẓ came originally from Túysirkán and that he composed a commentary on the Qur'án.

Shiblí Nu'mání arranges his matter systematically, be- Parentage and childhood of Ḥáfiẓ ginning with an account of the poet's parentage and education derived from the above-men­tioned May-khána, to which, however, he apparently attaches little credence. According to this account, the father of Ḥáfiẓ, who was named Bahá'u'd-Dín, migrated from Iṣfahán to Shíráz in the time of the Atábeks of Fárs, and there enriched himself by commerce, but died leaving his affairs in confusion, and his wife and little son in penury, so that the latter was obliged to earn a livelihood by the sweat of his brow. Nevertheless he found time and means to attend a neighbouring school, where he obtained at least a respectable education and learned the Qur'án by heart, in consequence of which he afterwards adopted in his poems the nom de guerre of “Ḥáfiẓ” (“Rememberer”), a term commonly applied to those who have committed to memory and can recite without error the sacred book of Islám. He soon began to compose and recite poems, but with small success until in a vigil at the shrine of Bábá Kúhí on a hill to the north of Shíráz he was visited by the Imám 'Alí, who gave him to eat some mysterious heavenly food and told him that henceforth the gift of poetry and the keys of all knowledge should be his.

Shiblí Nu'mání next passes to the enumeration of the Patrons of Ḥáfiẓ several kings and princes whose favour and patronage Ḥáfiẓ enjoyed. Of these the first was Sháh (or Shaykh) Abú Isḥáq Injú, the son of Maḥmúd Injú * who was appointed governor of Fárs in the reign of

<graphic>

ḤÁFIẒ (left) and ABÚ ISḤÁQ (right)
Add. 7468 (Brit. Mus.), f. 34^b
To face p. 274

Gházán Khán. This Abú Isḥáq * was a poet and friend of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq Injú poets, heedless, pleasure-loving, and so negligent of the affairs of state that when he was at last induced by his favourite Shaykh Amínu'd-Dín to fix his attention on the Muẓaffarí hosts who were invest­ing his capital, he merely remarked that his enemy must be a fool to waste the delicious season of Spring in such fashion, and concluded by reciting the verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Come, let us make merry just for this one night,
And let us deal tomorrow with tomorrow's business.”

Concerning Abú Isḥáq's brief but genial reign at Shíráz, Ḥáfiẓ says:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“In truth the turquoise ring of Abú Isḥáq
Flashed finely, but it was a transitory prosperity.”

The five orna­ments of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq's court

The following verses, commemorating five of the chief ornaments of Shaykh Abú Isḥáq's court, also belong to this period:

<text in Arabic script omitted> <text in Arabic script omitted>