Shiraz in the Age of Hafez by Limbert John W

Author:Limbert, John W.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295802886
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Pleasant is Shiraz and its incomparable site. O Lord, preserve it from decline.

6

Shirazi Society: Patricians, Poets, and Scholars

[Hafez] reflected the life as it had been spun for the people of Iran for two thousand years. He did so with such precision, that when, today, we drink of his lyrics it is as if we are drinking of history

—M. A. Eslami-Nodushan

The Eternal Story of Hafez

In Hafez's Shiraz, rulers, ministers, and judges took power directly from their offices. One judge might be more or less powerful than another, but there was no question about what a judge was supposed to do. Below these top officials, however, the picture was different. Nowhere was the power of the kalu, the pahlavan, the teacher, and the sufi sheikh clearly defined. All of these persons, however—with or without job descriptions—had a share in running the city. In the last chapter we indicated something of how they did it. Beyond city administration, a crucial question remains: how did the Shirazis interact as individuals and groups and what kind of society did they form by their interactions? By extension, what manner of society formed the setting for Hafez's beautiful lyrics?

Hafez's Shiraz was above all a religious society, where the beliefs, culture and practices of Islam shaped every aspect of social life. This religious society, despite the best efforts of a strict ruler like Mohammad Mozaffar, was never puritanical, full of only somber prayers and fasts. Few Iranians of any faith have ever been full-time puritans or ascetics, and their all-embracing Islam has included widely varying beliefs and practices. The Islamic society of Hafez's Shiraz was not straitlaced, but as rich and diverse as the Iranian imagination itself.

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