or Ḥāfiẓ orig. Muḥammad Shams al-Dīn Ḥāfiẓ
born 1325/26, Shīrāz, Iran
died 1389/90, Shīrāz
Persian poet.
The recipient of a traditional religious education ( ḥāfiẓ designates someone who has learned the Qurʾān by heart), he served as court poet to several rulers of Shīrāz. He perfected the ghazel as a verse form of 6–15 couplets linked by unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas. His poems are notable for their simple, often colloquial, musical language and his unaffected use of homely images and proverbial expressions. His most famous work is his Dīvān . He is regarded as one of the greatest Persian lyric poets.