When Hafez died, he was buried in the Mosalla cemetery, which stretches from the north bank of the Dry River and Imamzadeh Ali ibn Hamzeh, to the foothills of Mount Chehel Maqam; most of it has been demolished during city construction projects. It is said that the Orthodox refused to have Hafez buried in Muslim cemetery because of his anti-orthodox, sensual poetry; however, influenced by an oracle taken from his poetry they finally agreed to a proper burial. The story may not be true; then again, it may be, since the custom of asking Hafez's Divan (an anthology of poems) for good advice in every situation is still in use.
For about sixty years, the poet's burial place was marked only by a plain tombstone, until in 1477 Shams al-Din Mohammad Yaghmai, the vizier of the ruler Mirza Abulqasem Gurkani, set up a domed crypt and created in front of it a pool watered by the Roknabad qanat. The new, splendid edifice was built in 1173 at the time of Karim Khan Zand. Like the majority of contemporary buildings, it consisted of a hall with four sturdy, monolithic, stone columns. It was open on the north and south sides and flanked by two smaller rooms on the other two sides. The tomb itself was located in the north section of the grounds, while the south section of the side was occupied by a garden. At Karim Khan's order, there was also made a large, marble gravestone, which has survived to this day.
It when we speak of 14th- century Shiraz, or when the city is so much as is mentioned among educated Westerners, people immediately recall the name that has become the very symbol of the Persian lyric for both Eastern and Western readers – that of Mohammad Shams al-Din Hafez. But famous as this poet is in both East and West, and as much as his poetry has been interpreted and analyzed, our knowledge of Hafez's birth nor that of his death has yet been established, though most scholars seem to have accepted the dates of 1325 and 1389 respectively. Hafez's father, a merchant who had migrated from Esfahan to Shiraz, died early, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. Still, young Hafez apparently enjoyed a solid education in Persian literature, the sciences -hence his nom- de – plume Hafez (the title designating one who has learnt the Koran by heart). Some sources speak of his poverty and say that he apprenticed himself to a baker to earn his living. It seems that he also worked as a copyist for quite some time, which means that even in his late twenties he still had to do some menial work. For a while, he enjoyed the patronage of several rulers of Shiraz as a court poet; until in about 1368, he fell out of favor at the court. He did not regain his position until 20 years later, just before his death. In his poetry, there are many echoes of historical events as well as biographical descriptions and details of life in Shiraz.
Several invitations from rulers outside Fars show that his poetry attracted interest quite early in his life. However, unlike his globetrotter fellow poet Saadi, Hafez never left Shiraz, except for the two trips that he was forced to make. The first trip was when he was exiled from Shiraz because of mass opposition to his singular behavior; he stayed out of town until the situation cooled down. The other trip was to the port of Hormoz on the Persian Gulf, where he was to travel to India at the invitation of the Sultan of Bengal – a stormy sea, however, may have made him change his mind and led him to return to his native city.
Very little is known about Hafez's personal life. He was almost certainly married, and one of his ghazals (a lyric poem of 6 to 15 couplets linked by a unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas) is interpreted as an elegy for his son, who died, it is thought, in 1362. Hafez was undoubtedly an eminent Sufi, but he seems to rise above the narrow views of his coreligionists, and to look upon the world from a wider point of view.
The poetry of Hafez is the embodiment of sensuality and free thinking on the one hand, and of the highest mystical enthusiasm on the other. He is a master of rhetoric, and one of the great difficulties for his reader is to disentangle the complicated web of allusions and rhetorical figures that make up a line of Persian "true poetry".
Rumi states at the beginning of the Mathnavi that "the secrets of the loved ones can better be expressed in the stories of other", e.g., by veiling the truth under poetical symbols. It was this art which Hafez brought to perfection. In almost all of his verses, a constant oscillation between the worldly and the spiritual level can be discerned. That is why his poetry can be interpreted – and, what is more, enjoyed – on two, if not three levels (and there may be even more hidden meanings). His motto may be this verse:
I declare it openly and am
Happy about my saying
I am the slave of love, and
Free from both worlds.
Is engraved by Hajj Aqasi Beik Afshar with two of Hafez's poems in beautiful Nastaliq script. The Mausoleum of Hafez was repeatedly repaired under the Qajar rulers but acquired its present form during the years 1935-1937. It was designed by Andre Godard, French architect and the first Director of the Iranian Archaeological Society. Following his plan, the columned hall of the Zand period was extended on either side, thus dividing the entire precinct into two sections, north and south. Today the colonnade stretches 56 m long in an east-west direction and is supported by twenty columns. Four of these columns have been preserved from the Zand age, while the other sixteen were added during the renovation.
The north section of the complex measures 60 by 50 m. It is dominated by a white rotunda with eight monolithic columns, standing on a slightly elevated octagonal platform. The columns support the roof, which is a canopy covered with copper sheeting, and the ceiling beneath is decorated with a mosaic of enameled tiles, and with selected verses from the poet's works inscribed in elegant Nastaliq. The original tombstone was in the middle of the platform.
To the south of the court, there are two stone water reservoirs, while the remaining area is a garden. The east wing of the north section accommodates a greenhouse, service sections, and private crypts. The building on the north side houses a library, a bookshop, and the Hafez study Center. The northwest corner is occupied by one of the most popular teahouses in Shiraz, with its tables surrounding a rectangular pool. The west side is dedicated to administrative purposes. Here, as well, stands a water cistern which has survived from the Zand period. The west section also houses the Qavam family crypt and several graves of famous Shiraz residents, among them the poet Ahli Shirazi; the historian and writer Forsat al-Dowleh; the foremost of the Zahabi dervishes, Mohammad Hashem al-Zahabi; and many others. The south section of the compound measures 150 by 80 m and is filled with charming flowerbeds.
The Mausoleum of Hafez is the most-visited historical and cultural monument in Shiraz. All day long, Iranians come to the garden to pay him tribute. Pilgrims briefly rest two fingers on the tombstone and recite the first chapter of the Koran in the memory of this, their favorite poet. They also seek insight into their future by reading a randomly selected sonnet from the poet's poem collection.