Hafez

Khajeh Shams-od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi was born in Shiraz in 1325 and wrote under the pen name Hafez, later earning the sobriquet Lisan al-Ghayb—Tongue of the Unseen. He worked primarily in ghazals, the lyric form best suited to Sufi mysticism, weaving together the beloved, faith, and the exposure of hypocrisy; his taverns and wine were religious ecstasy dressed in worldly language, freedom from restraint voiced through the lover. The Divân, his collected works likely compiled after his death in 1390, shaped post-14th century Persian writing more than any other author. His tomb in Shiraz d…