Shams al-Din Hafez Shirazi was born at Shiraz the capital of the province of Fars, Iran about the year 720/1320; some fifty years after the death of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 672/1273), Persia's most influential mystical poet. He grew up in an age when the finest Persian literature had already been written, and in the shadow of the reputation of his distinguished fellow-citizen, Shaikh Sa'di (d. 690/1291 or 691/1292). Persian poetry had thus reached its consummation in the romantic epic, the mystical Mathnavi, the Robaii, the Qasideh, and gnomic verse; Hafez spent little time on Qasideh and Robaii, and none at all on the other classical forms, but elected to specialize in the Ghazal or Sonnet, no doubt supposing-and not without cause-that he had something to contribute to this most delicate of all poetic forms. A Gazal or Sonnet is an eight to fifteen verses joint in meaning by a kind of symbolic inspiration and in style by the same melody. Each verse has two parts. In Ghazal, the second part of all verses share the same ending word or sylab.

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(total 485 Sonnets).

And a wish:	I've a dream of having a world wide and freely accessible Online Library of Persian Art and Literature including classics and contemporary poetry, fine arts, etc., all in Persian. Why not leaving those treasures on-line for our children to read and enjoy? Why not telling our kids where did we come from and how our ancestors contributed to the human culture? Is there anyone else feeling the same? If so, we should work together. I've already taken the first steps and seek help from all of you on volunteer basis. A way that you can contribute to implement this and make it more fruitful is to send me books related to Persian literature in any language, Persian, English, Japanese, French or German. Your contribution to introducing our culture to the world will be highly appreciated. My mail address is given at the bottom of this page. Thank you.
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THIS DOCUMENT AND ITS ENTIRE CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHT 1995 BY B.H. FAR. COPYING, REPUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTING THIS DOCUMENT IN WHOLE OR IN PART IS PROHIBITED BY LAW. IF YOU DESIRE TO MIRROR OR REPUBLISH PARTS OF THIS DOCUMENT IN ELECTRONIC FORM, PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR . Last Modified:	This page was created by B.H. Far. Please contact far@enel.ucalgary.ca for any suggestions or comments.