Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 THE JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADĀRS
- 2 TĪMŪR IN IRAN
- 3 THE SUCCESSORS OF TĪMŪR
- 4 THE TÜRKMEN DYNASTIES
- 5 THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 6 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM
- 7 EUROPEAN CONTACTS WITH PERSIA, 1350–1736
- 8 TRADE FROM THE MID-14TH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 9 SOCIAL AND INTERNAL ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
- 10 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN
- 11 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES
- 12 RELIGION IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS
- 13 SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 14 CARPETS AND TEXTILES
- 15 (a) TIMURID ARCHITECTURE
- (b) SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE
- 16 (a) THE PICTORIAL ARTS IN THE TIMURID PERIOD
- (b) THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 17 (a) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE TIMURID AND TÜRKMEN PERIODS (782–907/1380–1501)
- (b) HĀFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
- (c) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 18 PERSIAN POETRY IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS
- Bibliographies
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Maps
- References
(b) - HĀFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 THE JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADĀRS
- 2 TĪMŪR IN IRAN
- 3 THE SUCCESSORS OF TĪMŪR
- 4 THE TÜRKMEN DYNASTIES
- 5 THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 6 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM
- 7 EUROPEAN CONTACTS WITH PERSIA, 1350–1736
- 8 TRADE FROM THE MID-14TH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 9 SOCIAL AND INTERNAL ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
- 10 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN
- 11 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES
- 12 RELIGION IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS
- 13 SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 14 CARPETS AND TEXTILES
- 15 (a) TIMURID ARCHITECTURE
- (b) SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE
- 16 (a) THE PICTORIAL ARTS IN THE TIMURID PERIOD
- (b) THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 17 (a) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE TIMURID AND TÜRKMEN PERIODS (782–907/1380–1501)
- (b) HĀFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
- (c) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD
- 18 PERSIAN POETRY IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS
- Bibliographies
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Plate section
- Maps
- References
Summary
One of the great experiences in Iran is a visit to Shīrāz and the delightful garden that is laid out around the tomb of Hāfiz; to enter under the white marble baldachin that covers the tombstone on which some of the poet's verses are engraved in elegant nasta'līq, and to open the Dīvān-i Hāfiz to look for a fa'l, an augury, according to well established rules that have been followed for centuries. During such a moment the visitor may perhaps recall the beautiful lines written by the “last classical poet” of Turkey, Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1881–1958), who uses one of Hāfiz's central concepts, that of rind (“vagrant”), in his poem Rindlerin ölümü:
In the garden at Hāfiz's tomb there is a rose
Which opens every day with blood-like colour
At night, the nightingale weeps until dawn turns grey,
With a tune that reminds us of the ancient Shīrāz.
Death is a calm country of spring for a vagrant;
His heat fumes everywhere like a censer – for years…
And over his tomb that lies under cool compresses
A rose opens every morn, every night a nightingale sings.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Iran , pp. 929 - 947Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986