Hafez Commemoration Day

MNA Culture Desk, "Iranian institutions to honor Hafez expert Salim Neysari" - Mehr News - Tehran, Iran
Friday, August 8, 2008

Scholar Salim Neysari, who has corrected the Divan of Hafez, will be honored during ceremonies on October 10 and 11 commemorating Hafez at the Hafezieh (the tomb of Hafez) in Shiraz.

Cosponsored by Iran’s Center for Hafez Studies and Fars Studies Foundation, the annual event commemorating Hafez Day is to be held on October 11 in Shiraz.

Having the theme of “The Impact of Hafez on Later Literati and Writers,” the event consists of two sections: the academic meeting and the commemoration ceremony. The Iranian Center for the Study of Hafez will compile and publish the delivered lectures during the ceremony at a later date.

Hafez scholars Masud Farzad, Qodsi Shirazi and Rashid Eivazi were honored during the last year’s ceremonies on Hafez Commemoration Day.

Seyyed Ahmad Hosseini Kazeruni on “The Impact of Hafez on Bushehr’s Contemporary Poets,” Abbasali Vafaii on “The Impact of Hafez Ideology and Poetry in Uzbekistan,” Mahindokht Mashhur on “The Impact of Hafez on Tagore,” and Hassan Anvari and Mahmud Fotuhi will give papers during the event.

Hafez Commemoration Day is an occasion that gives admirers of his poetic works a unique opportunity to gather and hold discussions on the poetry, thoughts, and life of Hafez.

Mohammed Shams al-Din (1315 or 1317-1389) was born in Shiraz. He gained the respectful title Hafez, meaning “one who has memorized the Quran” as a teacher of the Quran.

Hafez’s work, collected under the title of the Divan of Hafez, contains more than 500 poems, most of them in the form of a Ghazal, a short traditional Persian form that he perfected.

[Picture: Aramgah-e Hafez (Hafez Mausoleum), Exterior view, courtyard with pools and pavilion, 1773/1953, Shiraz. Photo by Robert Byron. Source: Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library/Archnet IMG08655 http://www.archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=2379].