SHORTLY AFTER EXPERIENCING the portents of 1813–14, Goethe wrote the first poems of the West-Eastern Divan, a work situated entirely within the spirit and atmosphere of Islam, and which could not have come into existence without Goethe’s lifelong positive attitude toward the Muslim faith.

The poet’s congenial familiarity with Arabian religiosity, the ease with which his mind moved within its world, arose from his profound sympathy for Islam and knowledge of its principles. Only this bond of trust and congeniality lent Goethe the confidence, when treating religious themes, to be grave or ironic by turns. It permitted him to blend into his poetry the aspect of “skeptical agility,” which he regarded as a chief characteristic of his Persian model, Hafez. However, Goethe’s high esteem for both Islam and Hafez assured that he never struck a discordant note.

Goethe’s Model: Hafez, an Adept of the Qur’an

For Goethe, it was important that Hafez was spiritually grounded in the Qur’an. Indeed, he stressed the fact that Hafez’s original byname, “retained as a characterizing first name,” conveyed that he knew the Qur’an by heart, “so that he could, on any occasion, cite appropriate passages, edify his audience, or resolve disputes.” In paying tribute to his Persian “twin, Goethe compared such total saturation with the Qur’an with the thorough knowledge (Bibelfestigkeit) of the Bible then still widespread in Germany, which he himself possessed. He believed that “a substantial education” could result from such knowledge, “because memory, occupied constantly with worthy matters, harbored pure contents for [a person’s] feelings and powers of judgment to enjoy and act on,” endowing a person with “exceptional dignity and unquestionable standing.” Of Hafez he says: