ḤᾹFIẒ SHĪRᾹZĪ (AH c. 726–792/c. 1326–1390 CE), in fuller form Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ-i Shīrāzī, was a Persian lyric poet and panegyrist, supreme master of the ghazal. He was born in Shīrāz, spent the greater part of his life in the area, and died there as well; his tomb is now a showplace. Much of his career was in the service or the ambiance of a minor dynasty, the Muzaffarids, whose overall reign was approximately coeval with his own life-span. As usual with Persian literary figures, Ḥāfiẓ's exact dates and the details of his life are much disputed: The traditional biography leans heavily on anecdotal pieties, casual references in a variety of sources...