Chronogram.

“On spiritual man the lamp of Ḥáfiẓ gleamed;
'Mid rays from Glory's Light his brilliant taper beamed;
Muṣallá was his home: a mournful date to gain.
Thrice take thou from MOSALLA'S EARTH ITS RICHEST
GRAIN.”

The sum of the letters composing the words <text in Arabic script omitted> is 791, and the same date is obtained by subtracting three times CIII (= 309) from MLL (= 1100). * The same date is given by Muḥammad Gulandám, the editor of Ḥáfiẓ's Díwán; while the following year (792) is given by Jámí in the Nafaḥátu'l-Uns, by Khwándamír in the Ḥabíbu's-Siyar, and by Faṣíḥí of Khwáf in his Mujmal or Compendium of History and Biography.

Celebrity of Ḥáfiẓ during his lifetime

Mention has already been made of the celebrity achieved by Ḥáfiẓ even during his lifetime. As he himself says:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“The black-eyed beauties of Cashmere and the Turks of Samarqand
Sing and dance to the strains of Ḥáfiẓ of Shíráz's verse.”

In another passage * he says, speaking of a poem he had just composed:

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

“All the parrots of India become sugar-breakers
Through this Persian candy which is going to Bengal.
Behold the annihilation of space and time in the pilgrimage of Poetry,
For this infant, though but one night old, is going on a year's
journey!”

Not only with the Muẓaffarí rulers of Shíráz, but with many other contemporary princes, Ḥáfiẓ entered into relations. Sulṭán Aḥmad ibn Uways-i-Jalá'ir, the accomplished Íl-khání ruler of Baghdád, himself a poet, musician, painter and artist, repeatedly strove to induce Ḥáfiẓ to visit his court, but, as the poet himself sang:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“The zephyr-breeze of Muṣallá and the stream of Ruknábád
Do not permit me to travel or wander afield.”

However he composed verses in this Prince's praise, amongst others the following:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“I praise God for the justice of the King
Aḥmad the son of Shaykh Uways the son of Ḥasan Íl-khání;
A Khán and the son of a Khán, a King of kingly descent,
Whom it were meet that I should call the Soul of the World.

No rose-bud of delight bloomed for me from the earth of Fárs:
O for the Tigris of Baghdád and the spiritual wine!
Curl your locks in Turkish fashion, for in thy fortune lie
The Empire of Khusraw and the status of Chingíz Khán.”

But, though Ḥáfiẓ never achieved the journey to Baghdád, he seems often to have thought of it:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“In Shíráz we did not find our way to our goal;
Happy that day when Ḥáfiẓ shall take the road to Baghdád!”

Two kings of India also sought to persuade Ḥáfiẓ to visit their courts. One of these was Maḥmúd Sháh Invitations to Ḥáfiẓ to visit India Bahmaní of the Deccan, a liberal patron of poets, who, through his favourite Mír Faḍlu'lláh, invited Ḥáfiẓ to his capital, and sent him money for his journey. Ḥáfiẓ spent a considerable portion of this sum before leaving Shíráz, and on arriving at Lár on his way to the Persian Gulf met with a destitute friend to whom he gave the remainder. Two Persian merchants, Khwája Zaynu'd-Dín of Hamadán, and Khwája Muḥam-mad of Kázarún, who were on their way to India, offered to defray the poet's expenses in return for the pleasure of his company. He went with them as far as the port of Hurmuz, where a ship was waiting to convey him to India, but a tempest which arose just as he was embarking caused him such lively consternation that, abandoning his intention, he returned to Shíráz and sent to Maḥmúd Sháh the poem beginning:

A verse-translation of the whole of this poem (though the verses stand in an order different from that given above) will be found amongst Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell's graceful renderings of Poems from the Divan of Hafiz * (No. xxi, pp. 91-93), in which the stanzas corresponding to the four couplets cited above are as follows:

“Not all the sum of earthly happiness
Is worth the bowed head of a moment's pain,
And if I sell for wine my dervish dress
Worth more than what I sell is what I gain!