Hagia Sophia in Constantinople 325period of Hafiz’s life was over. He died two or three years
later in 1389 or 1390 in Shiraz. More than 600 poems
have been attributed to Hafiz. Most of them were mysti-
cal, musical, and lyrical and were meant to be read and
understood on many levels. Hafiz’s major work, the
Divan,was a collection of his odes or ghazals.
Further reading:Hafiz, The Ghazaliyyat of Haafez of
Shiraz,ed. Mehdi Nakosteen (Boulder, Colo.: Este Es
Press, 1973); Hafiz, The Green Sea of Heaven: Fifty Ghaz-
als from the Díwán of Háfiz,trans. Elizabeth T. Gray (Ash-
land, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 1995); Hafiz, Odes of
Ha ̄fiz: Poetical Horoscope,trans. Abbas Aryanpur Kashani
(Lexington, Ky.: Mazdâ, 1984); Michael C. Hillman,
Unity in the Ghazals of Hafez(Minneapolis: Bibliotheca
Islamica, 1976); Annemarie Schimmel, “Ha ̄fiz and His
Contemporaries,” in The Cambridge History of Iran,Vol.
6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods,ed. Peter Jackson and
Laurence Lockhart (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1986), 929–947; G. M. Wickens, “Ha ̄ fiz,” Encyclo-
pedia of Islam3.55–57.
Hafsids, caliphate(Banu Hafs) The Hafsids, were
one of the most important dynasties in the history of late
medieval AL-MAGHRIBand Ifriqiya. They derived their
name from Abu Hafs Umar (d. 1176), a disciple of the
founder of the ALMOHADmovement, IBN TUMART. His
descendants filled various offices under the Almohads,
including the governorship of Ifriqiya. One of the Hafsid
governors, Abu-Zakariya Yahya I (r. 1228–49), in 1237
rebelled against the authority of the Almohad CALIPH,
Abd al-Wahid II (r. 1232–42), supposedly because of the
latter’s unorthodox innovations. He then expanded his
domain westward into the central al-Maghrib, taking
the towns of Constantine, Bougie, and Algiers, making
the rulers of Tlemcen tributaries. He also compelled the
Marinids in MOROCCO to acknowledge his authority.
He received appeals for help from the Muslims of
al-Andalus under attack in the RECONQUEST.
The power of the Hafsids grew under the son of Abu-
Zakariya, al-Muntasir (r. 1249–77), who repelled an
attack by the brothers King LOUIS IX of FRANCE and
CHARLESI OFANJOUin 1270. He assumed the titles of
caliph and Amir al-Muminin,claiming to be the heir of
the ABBASIDSof BAGHDAD.
The 150 years after al-Muntasir’s death were filled
with changes in Hafsid power and stability. The towns of
the central al-Maghrib, southern Ifriqiya, and the Jarid
region there threw off Hafsid control when it weakened.
At various times there were numerous claimants for the
throne, but they only ruled over smaller towns and
regions. In the 16th century, the dynasty had become lim-
ited to the then prosperous region of TUNIS.
Before the Barbary corsairs, the Hafsids had com-
mercial treaties with Italian and southern French towns
and with the Kingdom of ARAGON. The region benefited
from an influx of Iberian Muslim refugees, among
whom were the forebears of the historian IBN-KHALDUN.
Tunis became a great artistic and intellectual center. In
the 13th century the Hafsids introduced the MADRASA
system of education, previously used only in the lands
to the East. The Ottomans ended Hafsid rule in North
Africa in 1574.
Further reading: Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The
Islamic Dynasties (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1967), 35–37; Michael Brett and Werner Forman,
The Moors: Islam in the West(London: Orbis, 1980); Jamil
Abun-Nasr, A History of the Maghrib,2d ed. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1975).Haggadah (narrative, recital) The Haggadah was a
collection of PRAYERS, excerpts of tales, and songs com-
memorating the exodus of the Israelites from pharaonic
EGYPT. They were collected for recitation in Jewish com-
munities at the Passover meal. The Haggadahwas com-
posed by various anonymous authors over centuries. The
authoritative text now used by Jews throughout the
world was written in the Middle Ages. The oldest
manuscript was written in the 10th century, followed by
an Egyptian manuscript, then the Maimonides’ Hag-
gadah, and then another from western Europe, the Vitry
Haggadah.Both of the latter were 12th century. From the
13th century onward, the manuscripts of the Haggadah
were decorated by artists with miniatures and complex
ornamentation. The most beautiful later examples were
the Sarajevo Haggadah, from Iberia; the Birds’ Head
Haggadah, from 14th-century Germany; and the 15th-
century Hamilton Haggadah, from Iberia. The Rothschild
manuscript of the late 15th century is a product of
Jewish-Italian renaissance style.
See alsoART AND ARCHITECTURE, JEWISH.
Further reading:British Library, The Illuminated Hag-
gadah: Featuring Medieval Illuminations from the Haggadah
Collection of the British Library (New York: Stewart,
Tabori and Chang, 1998); David Goldstein, trans., The
Ashkenazi Haggadah: A Hebrew Manuscript of the Mid-15th
century from the Collections of the British Library,written
and illuminated by Joel ben Simeon Feibusch Ashkenazi
with a commentary attributed to Eleazar ben Judah of
Worms with introduction, notes on the illumination,
transcription (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1985).Hagia Sophia in Constantinople(Church of Holy or
Blessed Wisdom, Santa Sophia) Hagia Sophia was
JUSTINIAN I’s great church in CONSTANTINOPLE, built
between 532 and 537. It was dedicated to the holy wis-
dom, or hagia sophia,of GOD. It was erected on the ruins
of a fourth-century basilica destroyed in the “Nika revolt”
of 532. Exploiting this opportunity to build, Justanian’s
architects and scientists, Anthemios of Tralles and Isidore
of Miletos, were likely inspired by the church of Saint