Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

Dīvānof Ḥāfiẓ.^291 Centuries before Ḥāfiẓ, specifically in the Persian poetry of Sanā’ī

and ‘Aṭṭār, therindān’s disreputablemalāmatīcharacter had been employed as a

synecdoche to personify the mystic adept’s pursuit of detachment from the ways of

the world.^292 As ‘Aṭṭār remarked:

My work is turned all inside out

With people. For the worst slur

I think that ever I could incur

Is commendation by the crowd.^293

The Islamic counterpart of the Hindusaddhu, theqalandarwas a religious mendi-
cant, a holy vagabond orfaqīrwho attired himself in outlandish garb and often
shaved all facial hair save the moustache, travelling from town to town occupied in
devotional practices in order to mortify his soul and disengage himself from worldly
concerns. The Sufi theoreticians of medieval Persia inform us that the difference
between themalāmatīandqalandarmystics was that the former sought to conceal
his acts of devotion and piety, whereas the latter endeavoured to overturn and
destroy established customs.^294 In Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry both tendencies are visible.
As an institution, theqalandariyyawas closely connected with the earlymalāmatī
tradition in tenth-/eleventh-century Nishapur in Khurāsān,^295 which later, under
the leadership of Jamāl al-Dīn Sāwī (d. circa 630/1232), developed into separate
orders with their own Khānaqāhs scattered all over Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Persia and
India.^296 Historically speaking, theqalandariyyamovement represented a sort of
mass institutionalization of the high principles of themalāmatīmoral philosophy. In
Ḥāfiẓ’s poetry theqalandarlibertine (rind-iqalandar) stands at the summit of the
spiritual hierarchy. Theqalandaris the supreme mystical monarch before whom
even the prince must bend his knee to receive his crown:

Around the tavern door

The reprobates of God –qalandars–swarm

They withdraw and they bestow

The diadems of Empire.^297

In this verse, Ḥāfiẓ’s libertine wildmen (rindān-iqalandar) appear as ‘opportunists’ in
the mystical realm. The term ‘opportunist’ is etymologically derived from the Latin
porta(an entrance or passage through), anopportunusbeing that which offers an
opening, or stands before an opening. Thus, for the Romans aportafenestellawas an
opening through which Fortune could enter.^298 The wildman-libertine (rind-iqalan-
dar) in this verse stands at the door of drunkenness, the same door, the sameoppor-
tunusthrough which diadems, crowns and thrones have all issued forth, and
through which they will pass away. Like Ahasureus, the mysterious Wandering Jew
in Shelley’s epic poemHellas,^299 Ḥāfiẓ’srindis transported in ecstasy beyond time,
space and place, gaining control by relinquishing control, acquiring power through

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