Hafez (redirected from Mohammad Shams ud-Din)

Hafez

 or Hafiz orig. Muhammad Shams al-Din Hafiz

(born 1325/26, Shiraz, Iran—died 1389/90, Shiraz) Persian poet. The recipient of a traditional religious education (hafiz designates someone who has learned the Qur'an by heart), he served as court poet to several rulers of Shiraz. 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 Divan. He is regarded as one of the greatest Persian lyric poets.