The Religion Of Love

By IBNA Editor, *"Hafiz and the Religion of Love" to be assessed* - Iran Book News Agency - Iran
Sunday, August 1, 2010

A session will be held on assessing and criticizing the book of "Hafiz and the Religion of Love", edited by Leonard Lewisohn. The meeting is slated to run on Tuesday August 3 in the Book City.

Tehran: Figures as Leonard Lewisohn, Majduddin Keyvani and a group of Hafez researchers and Persian language and literature professors will participate and assess the book.

"Hafiz and the Religion of Love" edited by Leonard Lewisohn has been recently released in New York in English; it holds an introduction and preface authored by the editor and 4 main chapters. The introduction is penned by Peter Avery and it introduces Hafez, biography, his poetry and art.

Dr. Leonard Lewisohn is a Senior Lecturer in Persian and Sufi Literature at Exeter University.

His previous books include *The Angels Knocking on the Tavern Door*, *Thirty Poems of Hafez* (2008, translated with Robert Bly), *Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition; The Art of Spiritual Flight* (2006, edited with Christopher Shackle), *The Heritage of Sufism, vols 1-3* (1999) and *Beyond Faith and Infidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari* (1995).

Peter Avery (May 15, 1923 – October 6, 2008) was an eminent British scholar of Persian and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

The session of assessing and criticizing "Hafiz and the Religion of Love" will be held on Tuesday, August 3 in the cultural center of Book City.

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Leonard Lewisohn
Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry (International Library of Iranian Studies)
I. B. Tauris (August 31, 2010)

Product Description:

The romantic lyricism of the great Persian poet Hafiz (1315-1390) continues to be admired around the world. Recent exploration of that lyricism by Iranian scholars has revealed that, in addition to his masterful use of poetic devices, Hafiz's verse is deeply steeped in the philosophy and symbolism of Persian love mysticism.

This innovative volume discusses the aesthetic theories and mystical philosophy of the classical Persian love-lyric (ghazal) as particularly exemplified by Hafiz (who, along with Rumi and Sa'di, is Persia's most celebrated poet). For the first time in western literature, Hafiz's rhetoric of romance is situated within the broader context of what scholars refer to as "Love Theory" in Arabic and Persian poetry in particular and Islamic literature more generally.

Contributors from both the West and Iran conduct a major investigation of the love lyrics of Hafiz and of what they signified to that high culture and civilization which was devoted to the School of Love in medieval Persia.

The volume will have strong appeal to scholars of the Middle East, medieval Islamic literature, and the history and culture of Iran.