Shams al-Din Hafiz (ca. 1320-1390) was a great Persian mystical poet who, as a professor of Koranic exegesis, composed some of the most sensitive and lyrical poetry ever produced in the Middle East.

Hafiz was born in Shiraz, the capital of the province of Fars. He grew up in an age when the finest Arabic literature had already been written and when Persian poetry had reached the zenith of its romantic era. What was left for Hafiz was the highest attainment yet of lyrical poetry, the ghazal.

As a student, Hafiz learned the Koran by heart (the name Hafiz means Koran memorizer), and his poetry proves also that he was very well versed in the sciences of his day. Like all Persian poets of the Middle Ages, Hafiz was a court poet and panegyrist dependent on the good will of his patrons. Since he was a Shiite Moslem...