<text in Arabic script omitted>

“We have tried our fortune in this city; we must withdraw our gear from this gulf.”

This would supply an answer to one who was hesitating as to whether he should emigrate from the place where he was, or not.

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Welcome, O bird of auspicious advent and fortunate message!
Good is thy arrival! What news? Where is the Friend? Which is
the road?”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“If I go home from this abode of exile, then, when I go thither, I shall go wisely and sensibly.”

This would supply an answer to a traveller or exile who was wondering whether he would not do well to return home.

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Should my lucky star aid me, I will lay hold on his skirt;
Should I pluck it, O the delight! And should he slay me, O the
honour!”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Show thy face and take away from my memory all thought of my
own existence;
Bid the wind bear away all the harvest of those who are burned out!”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“I said, ‘I have longing for thee!’ She replied, ‘Thy longing will come
to an end.’
I said, ‘Be thou my Moon!’ She replied, ‘If it comes off!’”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“O Lord, that fresh and smiling rose which Thou didst entrust to me
I now entrust to Thee from the envious eye of the flower-bed.”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“My desire hath not yet been fulfilled in respect to my craving for
thy lip;
In the hope of the ruby goblet [of thy mouth] I am still a drainer
of dregs.”

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Arise, that we may seek an opening through the door of the tavern,
That we may sit in the Friend's path and seek [the fulfilment of] a
wish!”

As will be seen, the answers supplied by these vague Instances of appropriate auguries drawn from Ḥáfiẓ oracles are often of a somewhat uncertain na­ture, besides being limited in number to nine. The other method of opening the Díwán at random gives, of course, much richer results, and there stands on record many a remarkable response, which si non é vero é ben trovato. Six of these are recorded at the end (pp. 122-7) of the little treatise entitled Laṭífa-i-Ghay-biyya which has been already mentioned.*

The first refers to Sháh Isma'íl the Great, the founder of the Ṣafawí dynasty, who made the Shí'a doctrine the official creed of Persia, and carried his energy so far in this endeavour that he ordered the tombs of persons of suspected orthodoxy or of known Sunní proclivities to be destroyed. One day, accompanied by a certain ignorant and fanatical priest known as Mullá Magas, * he visited the tomb of Ḥáfiẓ, and Mullá Magas urged him to have it destroyed, alleging (as had been alleged by the poet's contemporaries) that he was unorthodox in belief and dissolute in life. The King thereupon announced his intention of taking an augury from the Díwán of Ḥáfiẓ, which opened at the following verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“At dawn Orion displayed his belt before me,
As though to say, ‘I am the King's slave, and this I swear.’”

This, it is to be supposed, Sháh Isma'íl took as an ex­pression of the deceased poet's loyalty to himself, and there­upon, well pleased, he again opened the book at random and was confronted by the following verse, which was even more evidently intended for his ecclesiastical companion:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“O fly (magas)! the presence of the Símurgh * is no fit place for thy
evolutions:
Thou dost but dishonour thyself and vex us!”

After this it may be assumed that Mullá Magas effaced himself!

The story referred to above, but not given in the Laṭífa-i-Ghaybiyya , is that, when Ḥáfiẓ died, some of his detractors objected to his being buried in the Muslim equivalent of consecrated ground, but that, on an augury being taken from his poems to decide the question, the following very appropriate verse resulted:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Withhold not thy footsteps from the bier of Ḥáfiẓ,
For, though he is immersed in sin, he will go to Paradise!”

The second instance given by the Laṭífa-i-Ghaybiyya refers to another king of the same dynasty, Sháh Ṭahmásp, * who one day, while playing with a ring which he valued very highly, dropped it, and, though he caused an exhaustive search for it to be made under the carpets and cushions, could not find it. An augury taken from Ḥáfiẓ gave the following result:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“What cares a heart which mirrors the Unseen and possesses the Goblet of Jamshíd for a ring which is mislaid for a moment?” * The king clapped his hands on his knees in admiration for the appositeness of this verse, and immediately felt the ring in a fold of his robe into which it had accidentally slipped.

The third anecdote refers to yet another Ṣafawí King, Sháh 'Abbás the Second (A.D. 1642-1667), who obtained the following augury as to a campaign which he was medi­tating against the province of Ádharbáyján, of which Tabríz is the capital:*

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Thou hast captured 'Iráq and Fárs by thy verse, O Ḥáfiẓ:
Come, for it is now the turn of Baghdád and the time for Tabríz.”

This decided the king in favour of the campaign, which turned out completely successful.

The fourth anecdote refers to the same king as the last. He had a servant named Siyáwush, whom his fellow-servants, through jealousy and malice, desired to destroy, so that they were constantly striving to convince the King that he was worthy of death. The result of an augury from the Díwán of Ḥáfiẓ was this verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“The King of the Turks hearkens to the speech of the accusers:
May he be ashamed of the wrong of [shedding] the blood of Siyá-
wush!”*

The fifth instance is from the author's own experience. In 1052/1642-3 he reached Aḥmad-ábád, then the capital of Gujerát in India, and there made the acquaintance of a certain Kan'án Beg, one of the notables of the place, who had a brother named Yúsuf Beg. The latter, who was in the army of Gujerát, had a little time previously been re­ported missing in a battle fought near Aḥmad-ábád against a hostile force. His brother, Kan'án Beg, was greatly disquieted until the following augury from Ḥáfiẓ assuaged his anxiety, which was soon afterwards dispelled by his brother's safe return:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Lost Joseph (Yúsuf) will return to Canaan (Kan'án): grieve not!
The house of sorrows will one day become a rose-garden: grieve not!”

The sixth and last instance refers to a certain Fatḥ-'Alí Sulṭán, the son of Imám-qulí Khán, a youth remarkable for his beauty, who was the author's contemporary. One day, flushed with wine, and clad in a green coat (qabá) embroidered with gold, he visited the tomb of Ḥáfiẓ on the day specially set apart for this, which falls in the latter part of the month of Rajab, and while there took an augury from the Díwán, which gave the following verse:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“When thou passest by, drunk with wine and clad in a gold-embroidered
coat,
Vow one kiss to Ḥáfiẓ who is clad in wool!”*

“What is one kiss?” exclaimed Fatḥ-'Alí; “I promise two kisses!” A week passed ere he revisited the tomb, and took another augury, which was as follows:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Thou didst say, ‘I will get drunk and give thee two kisses’:
The promise has passed its limit [of time], and we have seen neither
two nor even one.”

“What are two kisses?” cried the lad; “I promise three kisses!” And again he went away without discharging his vow, and did not return until another week had elapsed, when he again took an augury, and received the following answer:

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“Those three kisses which thou didst assign to me from thy two lips,
If thou dost not pay them, then thou art my debtor!”

Thereupon Fatḥ-'Alí Sulṭán leapt from his seat and im­printed kiss after kiss upon the poet's tombstone.

Other instances of omens taken from the Díwán of Ḥáfiẓ by the Moghul Emperor Jahángír, and recorded in his own handwriting in the margins of a manuscript formerly in his possession, are given in the Bankipore Catalogue (Persian Poetry: Firdawsí to Ḥáfiẓ), pp. 231-52.