Overview

I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation After six hundred years, the Persian lyrical poet Hafiz (d. 1389) still remains the most popular poet in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia where Persian is spoken today as the mother tongue. Imitated by the likes of Goethe in Germany, venerated by Tennyson in England and Emerson in the United States during the nineteenth century, he continues to attract attention and inspire admirers worldwide. Hafiz’s masterful use of the rhetorical arts, his poetic devices and his skill in imagery are acclaimed as the benchmark of lyrical excellence in Persian. Yet the undying cult of Hafiz’s popularity owes as much to his fascinating cosmopolitan romantic vision as to the exceptionally high calibre of his poetry. This important volume is not only the first study to date of the philosophical, theological and mystical bases of Hafiz’s erotic spirituality but the most comprehensive introduction to the poet’s romantic philosophy, literary tradition, poetry and biography yet published in any European language. It situates for the first time Hafiz’s rhetoric of romance within the broader context of ‘Love Theory’ in Arabic and Persian poetry. The work will appeal not only to students of Islamic philosophy, Sufism and Middle Eastern studies but also to a wider audience interested in comparative poetics, Eastern literature and spirituality, medieval romance and the philosophy of love.

Full Product Details

Author:   Leonard Lewisohn
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   I.B. Tauris
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.489kg
ISBN:  

9781784532123

ISBN 10:   1784532126
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   31 March 2015
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors List of Abbreviations Foreword Hafiz of Shiraz Peter Avery (Cambridge University) I. Introduction: Hafiz in the Socio-historical and Literary Milieu of Medieval Persia Part 1: Hafiz in Shiraz Cite de l'amour Shiraz and the Galaxy of Fourteenth-century Persian Poetry The Hafizocentricism of Persianate Civilization and the Qur'an Hafiz's Life and Times Hafiz in the Courtly Milieu of Shiraz Part 2: Hafiz's Erotic Spirituality Hafiz and the Inspired Libertine (rind) The Rindan: Mafia of Medieval Persia Hafiz's Malamati Ethic and the Rite of Spiritual Vagabonds (qalandar?) The Inspired Libertine in Hafiz's Erotic Theology The Art of Erotic Contemplation (shahid-bazi) The Erotic Gaze: Contemplation of Human Beauty sub specie aeternitatis (nazar-bazi) Part 3: The Scope and Contents of the Volume Acknowledgements Leonard Lewisohn (University of Exeter) II. Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry The Principles of the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry Husayn Ilahi-Ghomshei (Former Director, National Library of Tehran) The Erotic Spirit: Love, Man and Satan in Hafiz's Poetry Ali Asghar Seyed-Ghorab (Leiden University, The Netherlands) The Radiance of Epiphany: the Vision of Beauty and Love in Hafiz's Poem of Pre-Eternity Leili Anvar (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris) III. Hafiz and the Persian Sufi Tradition Hafiz and the Sufi C.H. de Fouchecour (Professeur emerite de l'Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III) The Religion of Love and the Puritans of Islam: Sufi Sources of Hafiz's Anti-clericalism Leonard Lewisohn (University of Exeter) Jalal al-Din Davani's Interpretation of Hafiz Carl W. Ernst (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) IV. Hafiz's Romantic Imagery and Language of Love Transfiguring Love: Perspective Shifts and Contextualization of Experience in Hafiz's Ghazals James Morris (Boston College) Semiotics of the Dawn in the Poetry of Hafiz Franklin Lewis (University of Chicago) Hafiz and the Language of Love in Nineteenth-Century English and American Poetry Parvin Loloi (Independent Scholar, U.K.) List of Abbreviations Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Leonard Lewisohn is Lecturer in Persian and Sufi Literature at Exeter University. His previous books include The Art of Spiritual Flight: Farid al-Din 'Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition (I.B.Tauris, 2006, edited with Christopher Shackle) and The Heritage of Sufism, vols 1-3 (1999).

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