Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

civilization which saw the establishment of the great Sufi Orders throughout the

MiddleEast,CentralAsiaandIndia.TheauthorexaminesḤāfiẓ’swinesymbolism

andbacchanalianexpressions,viewingthemascomprising‘alanguageofmystery’

alluding‘tosomethingexperienced’,andyetindefinableand‘unthinkablerational-

ly’.Inthisrespect,hestatesthatḤāfiẓ’sDīvānfollowspreciselythesamebacchana-

lianSufihermeneuticproposedbyMaḥmūdShabistarīinhisGardenofMystery,who

had demonstrated how profane poetic imagery could be used to vividly convey

ideasofaspiritualorder.ProfessorFouchécouralsogivesaroughsketchoftheSufi

worldinwhichḤāfiẓwassituated,revealingtheroleplayedinitbykeySufipoets

suchas‘Imādal-DīnFaqīhKirmānī(d.773/1372),oneofḤāfiẓ’sfamouscontempo-

raries. Surveying the mystical–intellectual terrain of the age, he analyses Ḥāfiẓ’s

very strong criticisms of the Sufis and examines the poet’s Sufi terminology. He

concludesthat‘despitethesestrictures,ḤāfiẓdeclaresthepathofSufismtobea

goodone,ononecondition,however–thatitleadbeyonditself.Asawaycomposed

ofrules,theSufiPathshouldleadtowherenoruleexistssavetheRuleofLove...

[where]theentirehierarchyofperfectionisabolished.’

Mychapteron‘TheReligionofLoveandthePuritansofIslam:SufiSourcesof

Ḥāfiẓ’sAnti-clericalism’illustratesḤāfiẓ’sroleasIslam’ssupremeanti-clericaland

anti-puritanpoet.ThedesiccatedMuslimpietyoftheascetic(zāhid)iscontrastedto

thehigherreligionofErosheldbythepoet’sinspiredlibertine(rind);thedichotomy

anddifferenceinspiritualattitudesbetweenthetwo–thelatter’sfocusonouter

ritualsversustheformer’sinnercontemplative‘intention’–isshowntobederived

from the teachings of early Persian Sufis such as Kalābadhī and Junayd. The Sufi

ethicalandmetaphysicaldoctrinessustaininghisoppositiontoreligioushypocrisy

andsanctimonyareanalysedindetail.Ḥāfiẓ’spredominantsocialattitudeisshown

to beanti-hypocritical, and his condemnation of hypocrisy as the ‘supreme sin’

traced back to its antecedents in Sufi thought: Anṣārī and Ghazālī in particular.

Lastly, the Sufi sources of Ḥāfiẓ’s counter-ethic ofmalāmatībacchanalian piety,

which redresses counterfeit religiosity and remedies the vice of hypocrisy, are

explored.Histheologyofsin(counterbalancingtheviceofpride,sinfunctionsasan

adjunct of humility), with its roots in the Sufi doctrine of Najm al-Dīn Rāzī and

Rashīdal-DīnMaybudī,issubjectedtodetailedanalysis.Thechapterconcludesthat

the emphasis on God’s mercy and forgiveness (‘afw) of sin is the fundamental

keynotethemeofḤāfiẓ’smoraltheology.

CarlErnstconcludesthispartofthevolumewithastudyof‘Jalālal-DīnDavānī’s

Interpretation of Ḥāfiẓ’. Davānī (d. 908/1502) was a famous late classical Iranian

mystical philosopher who lived a little less than a century after Ḥāfiẓ’s death in

Shīrāz.Hewroteoneoftheearliest,ifnottheveryfirst,separatecommentaryon

his poetry, approaching the poet’s verses from three perspectives: those of the

philosophical mystics, the Sufis, and the Peripatetic and Illuminationist sages

(ḥukamā). Davānī’s hermeneutic involved a reading of individual words and

codedsymbolsasmetaphoricallyrepresentativeofunstatedrealities,anapproach

that was similar to ‘the way of reading symbols in Persian literature from a Sufi

Editor’sIntroductionandAcknowledgements xxiii

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