18Justasscholarshavespokenofthe‘Qur’ānizationofthememory’inIslamicintel-
lectualtraditions,asimilarphenomenonappearedinlateclassicalPersianatecivi-
lization.InlandswherePersianisspokentheDīvānofḤāfiẓhasforcenturiesbeen
canonizedasamiraculousscripture;fewcriticstodaywouldprobablydisagree
withJāmī’sviewintheBahāristānthat‘someofhispoemsaredownrightmiracu-
lous’.^139 Ḥāfiẓpossessesaqualitythatonlyahandfulofsacredtextsandscriptures
–thesayingsofLaoTzuortheIChinginthisrespectcometomind–possess,which
isthattheintellectualveracityofhisversetranscendsthecenturyofitscomposi-
tion.ForPersian-speakers,hispoemsremainasortoftrans-sectarian,atemporal
sacredtext,ahallowedscriptureveneratedbyMuslims,ChristiansandJewsin
Iran,Tajikistan,AfghanistanandallthroughoutCentralAsia,andbyHindus,Sikhs
andBuddhistsinIndia,nottomentionadmiredbyatheistsandsecularnationalists
everywhere.‘Settingthematterofreligiontotheside’,pronouncedMu‘īn,‘to
Persian-speakersthewordsofḤāfiẓareconsideredtobeashallowedasanyheav-
enlyscriptureofloftyspiritualrank.HisDīvānisoneoftheimportantpillarsof
Persianlanguage,whichtillDoomsdaywillremaineverlastinglyimmunefromruin
anddecline.’^140
Ḥāfiẓ’sLifeandTimes
NexttonothingisknownaboutḤāfiẓ’sadolescence,educationandfamily.^141 We
knowthatḤāfiẓcamefromawell-to-dofamily,sincetheepithetKhwāja(Esquire)
attachedtohisname(KhwājaShamsal-DīnMuḥammadḤāfiẓ)wasreservedfor
membersofthenobilityandgentility.^142 Nonetheless,weknownothingofhisfam-
ily,ortheirorigins;eventhenameofhisfatherisunknown.^143 Nearlyeverything
wedoknowaboutthepoethasbeenlargelyconstruedbylaterhagiographical
accountsorbymodernscholarsreadingpoliticalreferencesintohisDīvānbyhind-
sight.‘Theattempttowriteaconventionalmodernbiographyofamedievalpoet
likeHafezorFerdowsi,intheformofabildungsromanconstructedoutofascertain-
ablefacts’,Khurramshahīunderlines,‘isitselfananachronisticventure.Modern
biographiesofmodernpoets,basedonmyriadsofexternalsourcesandfirst-hand
accounts,oreventheirowndiariesandletters,maydeepenourunderstandingof
theirpoems.Buttoreversetheprocessandattempttoconjureupbiographical
detailsbyover-literalinterpretationofhighlypolishedandtraditionalmedieval
poemsistopursueachimera.’^144 Asidefromafewpoemswhichmentionsomeof
thefamousfigureswholivedduringhislifetime,whichpermitonetoestimate
approximatelytheirdateofcomposition,theDīvāndoesnotreallyprovideenough
materialtoformulateabiographyofthepoet.^145
FromthereferencesthatexistinhisDīvān(aspointedoutabove)andhispen-
name,itisclearthatinadditiontohavingthetextoftheQur’ānbyheart,he
excelledinthesciencesofQur’āncommentary(tafsīr)andrecitation(talawwut).
DāryūshĀshūrī’sintertextualstudydemonstratedbeyondalldoubtthatḤāfiẓ’s
ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry