Saturday, April 13, 2024

The 100 Greatest Muslims (2026): 56: Hafez - The 14th Century Persian Poet Whose Diwan Became the Pinnacle of Persian Poetry

56

Hafez

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Hafez
حافظ
Posthumous portrait of Hafez by Anselm Feuerbach, 1852
Posthumous portrait of Hafez by Anselm Feuerbach, 1852
Born
Khajeh Shams-od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi

c. 1325
Shiraz, Muzaffarid Iran
Died1390 (aged 64–65)
Shiraz, Timurid Iran
Resting placeTomb of Hafez, Shiraz, Iran
OccupationPoet
Language
NationalityIranian
GenresMystic poetry (Ghazal, Irfan) Spiritual poet, mystic
Notable worksThe Divân of Hafez

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Ḥāfeẓ (born 1325/26, Shīrāz, Iran—died 1389/90, Shīrāz) was one of the finest lyric poets of Persia.

Ḥāfeẓ received a classical religious education, lectured on Qurʾānic and other theological subjects (“Ḥāfeẓ” designates one who has learned the Qurʾān by heart), and wrote commentaries on religious classics. As a court poet, he enjoyed the patronage of several rulers of Shīrāz.

About 1368–69 Ḥāfeẓ fell out of favour at the court and 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 Shīrāz. One of the guiding principles of his life was Sufism, the Islamic mystical movement that demanded of its adherents complete devotion to the pursuit of union with the ultimate reality.

Quick Facts
Also spelled:
Ḥāfiẓ
In full:
Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ
Born:
1325/26, Shīrāz, Iran
Died:
1389/90, Shīrāz







Ḥāfeẓ’s principal verse form, one that he brought to a perfection never achieved before or since, was the ghazal, a lyric poem of 6 to 15 couplets linked by unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas. Traditionally, the ghazal had dealt with love and wine, motifs that, in their association with ecstasy and freedom from restraint, lent themselves naturally to the expression of Sufi ideas. Ḥāfeẓ’s achievement was to give these conventional subjects a freshness and subtlety that completely relieves his poetry of tedious formalism. An important innovation credited to Ḥāfeẓ was the use of the ghazal instead of the qaṣīdah (ode) in panegyrics. Ḥāfeẓ also reduced the panegyric element of his poems to a mere one or two lines, leaving the remainder of the poem for his ideas. The extraordinary popularity of Ḥāfeẓ’s poetry in all Persian-speaking lands stems from his simple and often colloquial though musical language, free from artificial virtuosity, and his unaffected use of homely images and proverbial expressions. Above all, his poetry is characterized by love of humanity, contempt for hypocrisy and mediocrity, and an ability to universalize everyday experience and to relate it to the mystic’s unending search for union with God. His appeal in the West is indicated by the numerous translations of his poems. Ḥāfeẓ is most famous for his Dīvān; among the many partial English translations of this work are those by Gertrude Bell and H. Wilberforce Clarke.

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Khajeh Shams-od-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi[a] (1325–1390), also known by his pen name Hafez,[b][2] was a Persian lyric poet whose collected works are regarded by many Iranians as one of the highest pinnacles of Persian literature.[3][4]His works are often found in the homes of Persian speakers, who learn his poems by heart and use them as everyday proverbs and sayings. His life and poems have become the subjects of much analysis, commentary, and interpretation, influencing post-14th century Persian writing more than any other Persian author.[5][6] He is also known by his sobriquet Lisan al-Ghayb (Tongue of the Unseen).[7][8][9]

Hafez is best known for his Divân, a collection of his surviving poems probably compiled after his death. His works can be described as "antinomian"[10] and with the medieval use of the term "theosophical"; the term "theosophy" in the 13th and 14th centuries was used to indicate mystical work by "authors only inspired by the Islamic holy books" (as distinguished from theology). Hafez primarily wrote in the literary genre of lyric poetry or ghazals, which is the ideal style for expressing the ecstasy of divine inspiration in the mystical form of love poems. He was a Sufi.[2]

Themes of his ghazals include the beloved, faith and exposing hypocrisy. In his ghazals, he deals with love, wine and taverns, all presenting religious ecstasy and freedom from restraint, whether in actual worldly release or in the voice of the lover.[11] His influence on Persian speakers appears in divination by his poems (Persian: فال حافظ, romanized: fâl-e hâfez, somewhat similar to the Roman tradition of Sortes Vergilianae) and in the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art and Persian calligraphy. His tomb is located in his birthplace of Shiraz and is regularly visited by locals. Adaptations, imitations, and translations of his poems exist in all major languages.

Life

Doublures inside a 19th-century copy of the Divān of Hafez. The front doublure shows Hafez offering his work to a patron.

Khājeh Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī was born in Shiraz, and identified as a Sufi Muslim.[2][12] Few details of his life are known and accounts of his early life rely upon traditional anecdotes. Early tazkiras (biographical sketches) mentioning Hafez are generally considered unreliable.[13] At an early age, he memorized the Quran. He was given the title of Hafez because of this, which he later used as his pen name.[14] The preface of his Divān, in which his early life is discussed, was written by an unknown contemporary whose name may have been Moḥammad Golandām.[15] Two of the most highly regarded modern editions of Hafez's Divān are compiled by Allame Mohammad Qazvini and Qāsem Ghani (495 ghazals) and by Parviz Natel-Khanlari (486 ghazals).[16][17]

Modern scholars generally agree that he was born either in 1315 or 1317, although Gulfishan Khan suggests he was born in 1320.[12] According to an account by Jami, Hafez died in 1390.[15][18] He was supported by patronage from several successive local regimes: Shah Abu Ishaq, who came to power while Hafez was in his teens; Timur at the end of his life; and even the strict ruler Shah Mubariz ud-Din Muhammad (Mubariz Muzaffar). Though his work flourished most under the 27-year rule of Jalal ud-Din Shah Shuja (Shah Shuja),[19] it is claimed Hāfez briefly fell out of favor with Shah Shuja for mocking inferior poets (Shah Shuja wrote poetry himself and may have taken the comments personally), forcing Hāfez to flee from Shiraz to Isfahan and Yazd, however, no historical evidence to corroborate this is available.[19] Hafez also exchanged letters and poetry with Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the Sultan of Bengal, who invited him to Sonargaon though he could not make it.[20][21][22][23] Hafez was also a contemporary of the famous Sunni Shaf'iite theologian Adud al-Din al-Iji - who he praised as one of the five notables of Fars.[24][25][26]

Twenty years after his death, a tomb was erected to honor Hafez in the Musalla Gardens in Shiraz. The current mausoleum was designed by André Godard, a French archeologist and architect, in the late 1930s, and the tomb is raised on a dais amidst rose gardens, water channels, and orange trees. Inside, Hafez's alabaster sarcophagus bears the inscription of two of his poems.[27]

Legends

Depiction of Hafiz reading a book, painted by Sultan Mohammed circa 1531. Allegory of drunkenness (detail), in the Cartier Hafiz.[28]

Many semi-miraculous mythical tales were woven around Hafez after his death. It is said that by listening to his father's recitations, Hafez had accomplished the task of learning the Quran by heart at an early age (that is the meaning of the word Hafez). At the same time, he is said to have known by heart the works of Rumi, Saadi, Attar Neyshapuri, and Nizami Ganjavi.

According to one tradition, before meeting his self-chosen Sufi master Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Hafez had been working in a bakery, delivering bread to a wealthy quarter of the town. There, he first saw Shakh-e Nabat, a woman of great beauty, to whom some of his poems are addressed. Ravished by her beauty but knowing that his love for her would not be requited, he allegedly held his first mystic vigil in his desire to realize this union. Still, he encountered a being of surpassing beauty who identified himself as an angel, and his further attempts at union became mystic; a pursuit of spiritual union with the divine.

At 60, he is said to have begun a chilla-nashini, a 40-day-and-night vigil by sitting in a circle that he had drawn for himself. On the 40th day, he once again met with Zayn al-Attar on what is known to be their fortieth anniversary and was offered a cup of Shirazi wine. It was there where he is said to have attained "Cosmic Consciousness". He hints at this episode in one of his verses in which he advises the reader to attain "clarity of wine" by letting it "sit for 40 days".

In one tale, Timur angrily summoned Hafez to account for one of his verses:

Samarkand was Timur's capital and Bukhara was the kingdom's finest city. "With the blows of my lustrous sword", Timur complained, "I have subjugated most of the habitable globe... to embellish Samarkand and Bokhara, the seats of my government; and you would sell them for the black mole of some girl in Shiraz!"

Hafez, the tale goes, bowed deeply and replied, "Alas, O Prince, it is this prodigality which is the cause of the misery in which you find me". So surprised and pleased was Timur with this response that he dismissed Hafez with handsome gifts.[19]

Influence

Intellectual and artistic legacy

Mihály Csokonai, a Hungarian poet, composed this piece of poetry in Persian rhythmical versification (ramal). It proves that this Persian metre and therefore the poems of Hafez have already been known generally in Hungary in the 18th century.

Hafez was acclaimed throughout the Islamic world during his lifetime, with other Persian poets imitating his work, and offers of patronage from Baghdad to India.[19]

European scholars began to translate Hafez's work from the 17th Century.[12] The earliest translation of Hafez's poetic compositions is by Francois de Mesgnien Meninski who was the first court interpreter for the government of the Ottoman Empire, or Ottoman Porte. Thomas Hyde, Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford translated Hafez's work into Latin in around 1690, according to Gulfishan Khan. Hyde taught himself Persian and translated the work with the assistance of a Turkish commentary.[12]

His work was first translated into English in 1771 by William Jones. It would leave a mark on such Western writers as Thoreau, Goethe, W. B. Yeats, in his prose anthology book of essays, Discoveries,[29] as well as gaining a positive reception within West Bengal, in India, among some of the most prolific religious leaders and poets in this province, Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore's father, who knew Persian and used to recite from Hafez's Divans and in this line, Gurudev himself, who, during his visit to Persia in 1932, also made a homage visit to Hafez's tomb in Shiraz[30][31] and Ralph Waldo Emerson (the last referred to him as "a poet's poet").[32][33] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has his character Sherlock Holmes state that "there is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world" (in A Case of Identity). Friedrich Engels mentioned him in an 1853 letter to Karl Marx.[34] Elias John Winkinson Gibb dedicates a 'Villanelle to Hafiz' in his 1902 work Verses and Translations and Reynold Alleyen Nicholson, in 1911, dedicates a poem titled 'Hafiz' in his publication The Don and the Dervish.[12]

There is no definitive version of his collected works (or Dīvān); editions vary from 573 to 994 poems. Only since the 1940s has a sustained scholarly attempt (by Mas'ud Farzad, Qasim Ghani and others in Iran) been made to authenticate his work and to remove errors introduced by later copyists and censors. However, the reliability of such work has been questioned,[35] and in the words of Hāfez scholar Iraj Bashiri, "there remains little hope from there (i.e., Iran) for an authenticated diwan".[36]

In contemporary Iranian culture

Hafez is the most popular poet in Iran. His works can be found in almost every Iranian home.[37] In fact, October 12 is celebrated as Hafez Day in Iran.[38]

President Mohammad Khatami with actress Fatemeh Motamed-Aria in 2007 Yalda night use Divan of Hafez for fortune telling.

His tomb is "crowded with devotees" who visit the site and the atmosphere is "festive" with visitors singing and reciting their favorite Hafez poems.[37]

Many Iranians use Divan of Hafez for bibliomancy.[39] Iranian families usually have a Divan in their house, and when they get together during the Nowruz or Yaldā Night, they open it to a random page and read the poem on it, which they believe to be an indication of things that will happen in the future.[40]

In Iranian music

In the genre of Persian traditional music, Hafez, along with Saadi Shirazi, have been the most popular poets in the art of āvāz, non-metered form of singing. Also the form 'Sāqi-Nāmeh' in the radif of Persian music is based on the same title by Hafez. A number of contemporary composers such as Parviz Meshkatian (Sheydaie), Hossein Alizadeh (Ahu-ye Vahshi), Mohammad Reza Lotfi (Golestān), and Siamak Aghaie (Yād Bād) have composed metric songs (tasnif) based on ghazals of Hafez which have become very popular in the genre of classical music. Hayedeh performed the song "Padeshah-e Khooban", with music by Farid Zoland. The Ottoman composer Buhurizade Mustafa Itri composed his magnum opus Neva Kâr based upon one of Hafez's poems. The Polish composer Karol Szymanowski composed The Love Songs of Hafiz based upon a German translation of Hafez poems.[citation needed]

In Afghan music

Many Afghan singers, including Ahmad Zahir and Abdul Rahim Sarban, have composed songs such as "Ay Padeshah-e Khooban", "Gar-Zulfe Parayshanat".[citation needed]

Interpretation

Hafez (left) in a conversation with Abu Ishaq Indjou (right). Painting on Paper in Mughal style, 18th century

The question of whether his work is to be interpreted literally, mystically, or both has been a source of contention among western scholars.[41] On the one hand, some of his early readers such as William Jones saw in him a conventional lyricist similar to European love poets such as Petrarch.[42] Others scholars such as Henry Wilberforce Clarke saw him as purely a poet of didactic, ecstatic mysticism in the manner of Rumi, a view that a minority of twentieth century critics and literary historians have come to challenge.[43] Ralph Waldo Emerson rejected the Sufistic view of wine in Hafez's poems.[44]

This confusion stems from the fact that, early in Persian literary history, the poetic vocabulary was usurped by mystics, who believed that the ineffable could be better approached in poetry than in prose. In composing poems of mystic content, they imbued every word and image with mystical undertones, causing mysticism and lyricism to converge into a single tradition. As a result, no fourteenth-century Persian poet could write a lyrical poem without having a flavor of mysticism forced on it by the poetic vocabulary itself.[45][46] While some poets, such as Ubayd Zakani, attempted to distance themselves from this fused mystical-lyrical tradition by writing satires, Hafez embraced the fusion and thrived on it. Wheeler Thackston has said of this that Hafez "sang a rare blend of human and mystic love so balanced... that it is impossible to separate one from the other".[47]

For reasons such as that, the history of the translation of Hāfez is fraught with complications, and few translations into western languages have been wholly successful.

One of the figurative gestures for which he is most famous (and which is among the most difficult to translate) is īhām or artful punning. Thus, a word such as gowhar, which could mean both "essence, truth" and "pearl", would take on both meanings at once as in a phrase such as "a pearl/essential truth outside the shell of superficial existence".

Hafez often took advantage of the aforementioned lack of distinction between lyrical, mystical, and panegyric writing by using highly intellectualized, elaborate metaphors and images to suggest multiple possible meanings. For example, a couplet from one of Hafez's poems reads:[citation needed]

Last night, from the cypress branch, the nightingale sang,
In Old Persian tones, the lesson of spiritual stations.

The cypress tree is a symbol both of the beloved and of a regal presence; the nightingale and birdsong evoke the traditional setting for human love. The "lessons of spiritual stations" suggest, obviously, a mystical undertone as well (though the word for "spiritual" could also be translated as "intrinsically meaningful"). Therefore, the words could signify at once a prince addressing his devoted followers, a lover courting a beloved, and the reception of spiritual wisdom.[48]

Satire, religion, and politics

Hafez-Goethe monument in Weimar, Germany

Though Hafez is well known for his poetry, he is less commonly recognized for his intellectual and political contributions.[49] A defining feature of Hafez' poetry is its ironic tone and the theme of hypocrisy, widely believed to be a critique of the religious and ruling establishments of the time.[50][51] Persian satire developed during the 14th century, within the courts of the Mongol Empire. In this period, Hafez and other notable early satirists, such as Ubayd Zakani, produced a body of work that has since become a template for the use of satire as a political device. Many of his critiques are believed to be targeted at the rule of Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, specifically, towards the disintegration of important public and private institutions.[50][51][52]

His work, particularly his imaginative references to monasteries, convents, Shahneh, and muhtasib, ignored the religious taboos of his period, and he found humor in some of his society's religious doctrines.[51][52] Employing humor polemically has since become a common practice in Iranian public discourse and satire is now perhaps the de facto language of Iranian social commentary.[51] Hafez was influenced by ancient Iran and Zoroastrian religion, and the terminology of this religion has been consistently used in his poems. Examples are "Mogh", "Mogh-bache", "Jamshid" etc.[citation needed]

Modern English editions

A standard modern English edition of Hafez is Faces of Love (2012) translated by Dick Davis for Penguin Classics.[53] Beloved: 81 poems from Hafez (Bloodaxe Books, 2018) translated by Mario Petrucci, is a recent English selection, noted by Fatemeh Keshavarz (Roshan Institute for Persian studies, University of Maryland) for preserving "that audacious and multilayered richness one finds in the originals".[54]

Peter Avery translated a complete edition of Hafez in English, The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz, published in 2007.[55] It was awarded Iran's Farabi prize.[56] Avery's translations are published with notes explaining allusions in the text and filling in what the poets would have expected their readers to know.[56] An abridged version exists, titled Hafiz of Shiraz: Thirty Poems: An Introduction to the Sufi Master.

Certain English-language poems have been incorrectly attributed to Hafez. The American poet Daniel Ladinsky has published a number of volumes of poetry that describes its contents as "poems inspired by Hafiz" or "poems of Hafiz" or "renderings of Hafiz."[57] Some readers have understood this to mean that they are translations of poems written by Hafiz.[58] However, the author has acknowledged that these are original poems inspired by Hafiz and they are not translations of Hafiz poems.[59]

Divan-e-Hafez

Bangladeshi scholar Sultan Ahmad Nanupuri reciting a poem from the Divan of Hafez.
Duration: 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The Divān of Hafez, or simply The Divān, refers to any complete compilation of the poems of Hafez. These include his short, quatrain-length rubaiyat, his longer ghazal poems, and various other poetic formats.

There is no evidence that most of Hafez's poems were destroyed. In addition, Hafez was very famous during his lifetime. Therefore, the small number of poetic compositions we have available indicates that he was not a prolific poet.

It is likely that Hafez's Divan was compiled for the first time by Mohammad Glendam after his death. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Hafez published his court in AH 770 (1368). that is, edited more than twenty years before his death.[48]

Death and the tomb

Tomb of Hafez in Shiraz

The year of Hafez's death is AH 791 (1389). Hafez was buried in the prayer hall of Shiraz called the Hafezieh. In AH 855 (1451), after the conquest of Shiraz by Abolghasem Babar Teymouri, they built a tomb under the command of his minister, Maulana Mohammad Mamaei.[60]

Poems by Hafez

The number in the edition by Muhammad Qazvini and Qasem Ghani (1941) is given, as well as that of Parviz Nātel-Khānlari (2nd ed. 1983):

See also

References

  1.  "HAFEZ i. AN OVERVIEW". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
  2.  "Ḥâfeẓ | Persian author", Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved 2018-08-06 “Ḥâfeẓ” designates someoone who has learned the Qurʾān by heart"
  3.  Encyclopaedia Iranica. "HAFEZ". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2018-08-06. HAFEZ (Ḥāfeẓ), Šams-al-Din Moḥammad, of Shiraz (ca. 715-792/1315-1390), celebrated Persian lyric poet.
  4.  de Fouchécour, Charles-Henri (2018-07-01). "Ḥāfiẓ". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ was a Persian lyric poet who lived in Shiraz from about 715/1315 to 792/1390.
  5.  Yarshater. Accessed 25 July 2010.
  6.  Aga Khan III, "Hafiz and the Place of Iranian Culture in the World", November 9, 1936 London.
  7.  www.tandfonline.com. doi:10.1080/1475262X.2012.695691 https://www.tandfonline.com/action/cookieAbsent. Retrieved 2026-04-02. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8.  Bahmanteymouri, Elham; Hillier, Jean; Mohammadzadeh, Mohsen (2025-12-03). Ideological Fantasies in Planning Theories and Practices. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-63127-0.
  9.  Halimi, Ahmad Jawid (2025-09-01). "A Brief Study of Sin from the Perspective of Hafez Shirazi". Integrated Journal for Research in Arts and Humanities. 5 (5): 1–3. doi:10.55544/ijrah.5.5.1. ISSN 2583-1712.
  10.  "Hafez's Poetic Art". Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hafez-iii Accessed August 23, 2016.
  11.  "Hafez" at Encyclopædia Iranica
  12.  Khan, Gulfishan (2009). "Muslim-Western Cultural Encounter in the Eighteenth Century: The Impact of Ḥāfiẓ Shīrāzī's Poetry on Europe". Islamic Studies. 48 (1): 35–87. doi:10.52541/isiri.v48i1.3685. ISSN 0578-8072. JSTOR 20839153.
  13.  Lit. Hist. Persia III, pp. 271-73
  14.  Jonathan, Bloom (2002). Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. Yale University Press. p. 166. ISBN 0-300-09422-1. Retrieved 2015-03-21.
  15.  Khorramshahi. Accessed 25 July 2010
  16.  Lewisohn, p. 69.
  17.  Gray, pp. 11-12. Gray notes that Ghazvini's and Gani's compilation in 1941 relied on the earliest texts known at that time and that none of the four texts they used were related to each other. Since then, she adds, more than 14 earlier texts have been found, but their relationships to each other have not been studied.
  18.  Lewisohn, p. 67
  19.  Gray, pp. 2-4.
  20.  Ahmed, ABM Shamsuddin (2012). "Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M. Retrieved 18 May 2026.
  21.  Haider, MH (3 July 2015). "The Persian candy". The Daily Star (Bangladesh).
  22.  Jafri, Sardar. “Hafiz Shirazi (1312-1387-89).” Social Scientist, vol. 28, no. 1/2, 2000, pp. 12–31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3518055. Accessed 31 Jan. 2021.
  23.  Rabindranath Tagore (1932). Journey to Persia and Iraq. p. 47.
  24.  https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EIRO/COM-2596.xml?rskey=TUgTur In a famous qeṭʿa beginning with be ʿahd-e salṭanat-e Šāh Šayḵ Abu Esḥāq / be panj šāḵs ʿajab molk-e Fārs bud ābād (Ḵ. II, Qeṭ. 9, tr. Browne, Lit. Hist. Persia III, p. 276), praising five notables whose achievements brought prosperity to the land of Fārs, the poet refers to Qāżi ʿAżod-al-Din Iji and his famous manual of theology, Ketāb al-mawāqef fi ʿelm al-kalām (Van Ess, p. 1022; Schimmel, pp. 929-30).
  25.  "Ījī, ʿAḍud al-Dīn al- | Encyclopedia.com". archive.ph. 2024-07-20. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
  26.  "ʿAŻOD-AL-DĪN ĪJĪ". doi:10.1163/2330-4804_eiro_com_6222. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  27.  ANDRÉ "Hafez" at Encyclopædia Iranica
  28.  Welch, Stuart Cary (1976). Persian painting : five royal Safavid manuscripts of the sixteenth century. New York : G. Braziller. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8076-0812-8. Hafiz himself, popeyed with booze or religious inspiration, sits in a window above the huge wine jars.
  29.  Discoveries
  30.  The autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore
  31.  RABINDRANATH TAGORE
  32.  Kane, Paul (Spring 2009). "EMERSON AND HAFIZ: THE FIGURE OF THE RELIGIOUS POET". Religion & Literature. 41 (1): 111–139.; "that Emerson claims for the domain of poetry Hafiz may turn out to be a poet's poet"
  33.  Delphi Collected Poetical Works of Hafez. Delphi Classics. 2017. p. 10. ISBN 978-1786562104.
  34.  "Letters: Marx-Engels correspondence". Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  35.  Michael Hillmann in Rahnema-ye Ketab, 13 (1971), "Kusheshha-ye Jadid dar Shenakht-e Divan-e Sahih-e Hafez"
  36.  "Hafiz' Shirazi Turk: A Structuralist's Point of View". Archived from the original on 2014-03-01. Retrieved 2013-08-19.
  37.  Darke, Diana (1 November 2014). "The book in every Iranian home". BBC.
  38.  Hossein Kaji, "Hafez’s incomparable position in Iranian culture: October 12 is Hafez Day in Iran" Archived 2007-10-15 at the Wayback Machine, Mehrnews. Tehran Times Opinion Column, October 12, 2006.
  39.  Massoud Khalili#September 9, 2001 Massoud Khalili speaking to BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet
  40.  fa:حافظ
  41.  Schroeder, Eric, "The Wild Deer Mathnavi" in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 11, No. 2, Special Issue on Oriental Art and Aesthetics (December 1952), p.118
  42.  Jones, William (1772) "Preface" in Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Tongues p. iv
  43.  Dick Davis: Hafez Faces of Love and the Poets of Shiraz, introduction
  44.  "EMERSON, RALPH WALDO – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  45.  Thackston, Wheeler: A Millennium of Classical Persian Poetry, Ibex Publishers Inc. 1994, p. ix in "Introduction"
  46.  Davis, Dick, "On Not Translating Hafez" in the New England Review 25:1-2 [2004]: 310-18
  47.  Thackston, Wheeler, A Millennium of Classical Persian Poetry, Ibex Publishers Inc.' 1994, p.64
  48.  Meisami, Julie Scott. "Allegorical Gardens in the Persian Poetic Tradition: Nezami, Rumi, Hafez." International Journal of Middle East Studies 17(2) (May 1985), 229-260
  49.  Hafez, singing love Mahmood Soree, Golbarg magazine, mehr 1382, number 43
  50.  Yavari, Neguin; Potter, Lawrence G.; Oppenheim, Jean-Marc Ran (November 24, 2004). Views from the Edge: Essays in Honor of Richard W. Bulliet. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231509367 – via Google Books.
  51.  "طنز حافظ". Aftabir.com.
  52.  "مائده جان رسید ( بخش سوم)". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
  53.  Washington Post Book World: ‘Faces of Love,’ translations of Persian poetry reviewed by Michael Dirda
  54.  "Beloved | Bloodaxe Books".
  55.  ISBN 1-901383-26-1 hb; ISBN 1-901383-09-1 pb
  56.  "Obituary: Peter Avery", The Daily Telegraph, (14 October 2008), page 29, (not online 19 October 2008)
  57.  "Work".
  58.  "Supposed Hafiz poem recited by McGuinty turns out to be fake". Archived from the original on 31 October 2018.
  59.  "About".
  60.  Shaida, Khalid Hameed (2014). Hafiz, Drunk with God: Selected Odes. Xlibris Corporation. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4653-7091-4. Retrieved 2016-08-23.[self-published source]

Sources

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English Wikisource has original works by or about:

Notes

  1.  (Persian: خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی), also known by his nickname lesân-al-ḡayb ('the tongue of the unseen'),[1]
  2.  حافظ, Ḥâfeẓ lit. 'the memorizer' or 'the keeper'


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Hafez’s words illuminate love, life, and the soul, offering timeless wisdom and inspiration.

Hafez, the 14th-century Persian poet, is celebrated for his mystical and deeply human reflections. His quotes often explore love, divine connection, self-awareness, and the beauty of life. Some of his most memorable lines include:

  • “I wish I could show you...the astonishing light of your own being.” – a reminder of the inner brilliance within each person A-Z Quotes.
  • “Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.” – emphasizing joy and presence in everyday life word-ista.com.
  • “You yourself are your own obstacle, rise above yourself.” – encouraging self-overcoming and personal growth A-Z Quotes.
  • “The heart is a thousand stringed instrument that can only be tuned with love.” – highlighting love as the key to harmony and fulfillment Unico Things.
  • “Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’” – a lesson in unconditional giving and generosity scripturesavvy.com.
  • “What do sad people have in common? It seems they have all built a shrine to the past and often go there and do a strange wail and worship.” – reflecting on the importance of letting go of past sorrows word-ista.com.
  • “Little by little, you will turn into stars. Little by little, you will turn into the whole sweet, amorous Universe.” – a poetic vision of personal and spiritual transformation word-ista.com.
  • “The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night.” – a metaphor for embracing challenges and finding light in darkness scripturesavvy.com.
    Hafez’s poetry often blends the sacred and the sensual, using imagery of wine, gardens, and beloveds as metaphors for divine love and spiritual awakening celebsandplaces.com. His work encourages readers to seek joy, cultivate love, and recognize the divine spark within themselves, making his quotes both inspirational and deeply reflective.
    These lines continue to resonate across cultures and centuries, offering guidance on living fully, loving deeply, and embracing the mysteries of life.

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Thursday, February 22, 2024

2024: The 100 Greatest Muslims Since 1900: 92: Ameen Sayani, Pioneering Radio Star in India

 Sayani, Ameen 

Ameen Sayani (b. December 21, 1932, Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India – d. February 20, 2024, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) was an Indian radio announcer. He achieved fame and popularity across the Indian Subcontinent when he presented his Binaca Geetmala program of hits over the airwaves of Radio Ceylon. He was one of the most imitated announcers. His style of addressing the audience with "Behno aur Bhaiyo " (meaning "sisters and brothers") as against the traditional "Bhaiyo aur Behno" is still treated as an announcement with a melodious touch. He had produced, compered (or provided voice-overs for) over 54,000 radio programs and 19,000 spots/jingles since 1951. 

Ameen Sayani was introduced to All India Radio, Bombay, by his brother Hamid Sayani. Ameen participated in English programs there for ten years.

Later, he helped popularize All India Radio in India. Sayani was also a part of various movies throughout the years like Bhoot Bungla, Teen Devian, Boxer, and Qatl. He appeared in all of these movies in the role of an announcer in some event.

Sayani assisted his mother, Kulsum Sayani, in editing, publishing and printing a fortnightly journal for neo-literates, under the instructions of Mahatma Gandhi. The fortnightly, RAHBER (1940 to 1960), was simultaneously published in Devnagri (Hindi), Urdu and Gujarati scripts – but all in the simple "Hindustani" language promoted by Gandhi.

It was this grounding in simple communication that helped him in his long career of commercial broadcasting and culminated in his being awarded the "Hindi Ratna Puraskaar" by the prestigious Hindi Bhavan of New Delhi in 2007.

One little known fact about him is that he worked in the marketing Department of Tata Oil Mills Ltd. during 1960–62 as Brand Executive – mainly looking after their toilet soaps: Hamam and Jai.

Between All India Radio (from 1951), AIR's Commercial Service (from 1970) and various foreign stations (from 1976), Sayani produced, compered (or spoke for) over 54,000 radio programs and 19,000 spots/jingles. 

Ameen Sayani was born on December 21, 1932, into a Gujarati-speaking Muslim family in Mumbai. His parents were Kulsoom and Jan Mohammad Sayani. His mother was a freedom fighter and was close to Mahatma Gandhi, which is why Sayani called himself a Gandhian. He married a Kashmiri Pandit, Rama Mattu.

Ameen Sayani died of a heart attack on February 20, 2024.

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Monday, February 12, 2024

The 100 Greatest Muslims (2024): 57: Babur, The 16th Century Founder of the Mughal Empire

57

Babur

Babur (Persian literally, "tiger/panther"; b. Zahir ud-Din Muhammad, February 14, 1483 – d. December 26, 1530) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani ("Dwelling in Paradise").

Born in Andijan in the Fergana Valley (in present-day Uzbekistan), Babur was the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza (1456–1494, governor of Fergana from 1469 to 1494) and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur (1336–1405). Babur ascended the throne of Fergana in its capital Akhsikent in 1494 at the age of twelve and faced rebellion. He conquered Samarkand two years later, only to lose Fergana soon after. In his attempt to reconquer Fergana, he lost control of Samarkand. In 1501, his attempt to recapture both the regions failed when Muhammad Shaybani Khan defeated him. In 1504, he conquered Kabul, which was under the putative rule of Abdur Razaq Mirza, the infant heir of Ulugh Beg II.

Babur formed a partnership with the Safavid ruler Ismail I and reconquered parts of Turkistan, including Samarkand, only to again lose it and the other newly conquered lands to the Sheybanids. 

After losing Samarkand for the third time, Babur turned his attention to India and employed aid from the neighboring Safavid and Ottoman empires. He defeated Ibrahim Lodi, Sultan of Delhi, at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 CC and founded the Mughal Empire. Before the defeat of Lodi at Delhi, the Sultanate of Delhi had been a spent force, long in a state of decline.

The rival adjacent Rajput/Mewar kingdom under the rule of Rana Sanga, had aspirations of becoming the major power in northern India. The Maharaja Sanga unified several Rajput clans for the first time after Prithviraj Chauhan and advanced on Babur with a grand coalition of 100,000 Rajputs, engaging Babur in the Battle of Khanwa. 

During this pitched battle, Sanga suffered a major defeat due to Babur's skillful troop positioning and superior firepower. The Battle of Khanwa was one of the most decisive battles in Indian history, more so than the First Battle of Panipat, as the defeat of Rana Sanga was a watershed event in the Mughal conquest of northern India.

Religiously, Babur started his life as a staunch Muslim, but he underwent significant evolution. As he conquered new territories and grew older, Babur became more tolerant, allowing other religions to peacefully co-exist in his Empire and at his court. He also displayed a certain attraction to theology, poetry, geography, history, and biology — disciplines he promoted at his court — earning him a frequent association with representatives of the Timurid Renaissance. His religious and philosophical stances are characterized as humanistic. 

Babur married several times. Notable among his sons are Humayin, Kamran Mirza and Hindal Mirza.  Babur died in 1530 in Agra and Humayun succeeded him. Babur was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his remains were moved to Kabul and reburied. He ranks as a national hero in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Many of his poems have become popular folk songs. He wrote the Baburnama in Chaghatai Turkic.  It was translated into Persian during the reign (1556–1605) of his grandson, the Emperor Akbar. 

Ẓahir-ud-Din is Arabic for "Defender of the Faith" (of Islam), and Muhammad honors the Islamic prophet The name Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad was chosen for Babur by the Sufi saint Khwaja Ahrar, who was the spiritual master of Babur's father. The difficulty of pronouncing the name for his Central Asian Turco-Mongol army may have been responsible for the greater popularity of his nickname Babur, also variously spelled Baber, Babar, and Babor. The name Babur is generally taken in reference to the Persian word babur, meaning "tiger" or "panther". The word repeatedly appears in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and was borrowed into the Turkic languages of Central Asia.

Babur's memoirs form the main source for details of his life. They are known as the Baburnama and were written in Chaghatai Turkic, his mother-tongue. Baburnama was translated into Persian during the rule of Babur's grandson Akbar.

Babur was born on February 14, 1483, in the city of Andijan, Fergana Valley, contemporary Uzbekistan. He was the eldest son of Umar Sheikh Mirza, ruler of the Fergana Valley, the son of Abu Sa'id Mirza (and grandson of Miran Shah, who was himself son of Timur) and his wife Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, daughter of Yunus Khan, the ruler of Moghulistan (a descendant of Genghis Khan).

Babur hailed from the Barlas tribe, which was of Mongol origin and had embraced Turkic and Persian culture. They had also converted to Islam centuries earlier and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. Aside from the Chaghatai language, Babur was equally fluent in Persian, the lingua franca of the Timurid elite. Some of Babur's relatives, such as his uncles Mahmud Khan (Moghul Khan) and Ahmad Khan, continued to identify as Mongols, and allowed him to use their Mongol troops to help recover his fortunes in the turbulent years that followed.

Hence, Babur, though nominally a Mongol (or Moghul in Persian language), drew much of his support from the local Turkic and Iranian people of Central Asia, and his army was diverse in its ethnic makeup. It included Sarts, Tajiks, ethnic Afghans, Arabs, as well as Barlas and Chaghatayid Turko-Mongols from Central Asia.

In 1494, eleven-year-old Babur became the ruler of Fergana, in present-day Uzbekistan, after Umar Sheikh Mirza died while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled into the ravine below the palace. During this time, two of his uncles from the neighboring kingdoms, who were hostile to his father, and a group of nobles who wanted his younger brother Jahangir to be the ruler, threatened his succession to the throne. His uncles were relentless in their attempts to dislodge him from this position as well as from many of his other territorial possessions to come. Babur was able to secure his throne mainly because of help from his maternal grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begum, although there was also some luck involved.

Most territories around his kingdom were ruled by his relatives, who were descendants of either Timur or Genghis Khan, and were constantly in conflict. At that time, rival princes were fighting over the city of Samarkand to the west, which was ruled by his paternal cousin. Babur had a great ambition to capture the city. In 1497, he besieged Samarkand for seven months before eventually gaining control over it. He was fifteen years old and for him the campaign was a huge achievement. Babur was able to hold the city despite desertions in his army, but he later fell seriously ill. Meanwhile, a rebellion back home, approximately 350 kilometers (220 miles) away, amongst nobles who favored his brother, robbed him of Ferghana. As he was marching to recover it, he lost Samarkand to a rival prince, leaving him with neither. He had held Samarkand for 100 days, and he considered this defeat as his biggest loss, obsessing over it even later in his life after his conquests in India.

For three years, Babur concentrated on building a strong army, recruiting widely amongst the Tajiks of Badakhshan in particular. In 1500–1501, Babur again laid siege to Samarkand, and indeed he took the city briefly, but he was in turn besieged by his most formidable rival, Muhammad Shaybani, Khan of the Uzbeks. The situation became such that Babur was compelled to give his sister, Khanzada, to Shaybani in marriage as part of the peace settlement. Only after this were Babur and his troops allowed to depart the city in safety. Samarkand, his lifelong obsession, was thus lost again. He then tried to reclaim Ferghana, but lost the battle there also and, escaping with a small band of followers, he wandered the mountains of central Asia and took refuge with hill tribes. By 1502, he had resigned all hopes of recovering Ferghana. Babur was left with nothing and was forced to try his luck elsewhere. He finally went to Tahkent, which was ruled by his maternal uncle, but he found himself less than welcome there. Babur wrote, "During my stay in Tashkent, I endured much poverty and humiliation. No country or hope of one!" Thus, during the ten years since becoming the ruler of Ferghana, Babur suffered many short-lived victories and was without shelter and in exile, aided by friends and peasants.

Kabul was ruled by Babur's paternal uncle Ulugh Beg II, who died leaving only an infant as heir. The city was then claimed by Mukin Begh, who was considered to be a usurper and was opposed by the local populace. In 1504, Babur was able to cross the snowy Hindu Kush mountains and capture Kabul from the remaining Arghunids, who were forced to retreat to Kandahar. With this move, Babur gained a new kingdom, re-established his fortunes and would remain Kabul's ruler until 1526. 

In 1505, because of the low revenue generated by his new mountain kingdom, Babur began his first expedition to India. In his memoirs, he wrote, "My desire for Hindustan had been constant. It was in the month of Shaban, the Sun being in Aquarius, that we rode out of Kabul for Hindustan". It was a brief raid across the Khyber Pass. 

In the same year, Babur united with Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqarah of Herat, a fellow Timurid and distant relative, against their common enemy, the Uzbek Shaybani. However, this venture did not take place because Husayn Mirza died in 1506 and his two sons were reluctant to go to war. Babur instead stayed at Herat after being invited by the two Mirza brothers. It was then the cultural capital of the eastern Muslim world. Though he was disgusted by the vices and luxuries of the city, Babur marveled at the intellectual abundance there. He became acquainted with the work of the Chagatai poet Mir Ali Shir Nava'i, who encouraged the use of Chagatai as a literary language. Nava'i's proficiency with the language, which he is credited with founding, may have influenced Babur in his decision to use it for his memoirs. He spent two months in Herat before being forced to leave because of diminishing resources. Herat later was overrun by Shaybani and the Mirzas fled. Babur became the only reigning ruler of the Timurid dynasty after the loss of Herat, and many princes sought refuge with him at Kabul because of Shaybani's invasion in the west. Babur thus assumed the title of Padshah (emperor) among the Timurids—though this title was insignificant since most of his ancestral lands were taken, Kabul itself was in danger and Shaybani continued to be a threat.

Babur prevailed during a potential rebellion in Kabul, but two years later a revolt among some of his leading generals drove him out of Kabul. Escaping with very few companions, Babur soon returned to the city, capturing Kabul again and regaining the allegiance of the rebels. Meanwhile, Shaybani was defeated and killed by Ismail I, Shah of Shia Safavid Persia, in 1510.

Babur and the remaining Timurids used this opportunity to reconquer their ancestral territories. Over the following few years, Babur and Shah Ismail formed a partnership in an attempt to take over parts of Central Asia. In return for Ismail's assistance, Babur permitted the Safavids to act as a suzerain over him and his followers. Thus, in 1513, after leaving his brother Nasir Mirza to rule Kabul, he managed to take Samarkand for the third time. He also took Bokhara but lost both again to the Uzbeks. Shah Ismail reunited Babur with his sister Khanzada, who had been imprisoned by and forced to marry the recently deceased Shaybani. Babur returned to Kabul after three years in 1514. The following 11 years of his rule mainly involved dealing with relatively insignificant rebellions from Afghan tribes, his nobles and relatives, in addition to conducting raids across the eastern mountains.

Babur began to modernize and train his army despite it being, for him, relatively peaceful times. Determined to conquer the Uzbeks and recapture his ancestral homeland, Babur was wary of their allies the Ottomans, and made no attempt to establish formal diplomatic relations with them. He did, however, employ the matchlock commander Mustafa Rumi and several other Ottomans. From them, he adopted the tactic of using matchlocks and cannons in the field (rather than only in sieges), which gave him an important advantage in India.

Babur still wanted to escape from the Uzbeks, and he chose India as a refuge instead of Badakhshan, which was to the north of Kabul. He wrote, "In the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack of time there was, put a wider space between us and the strong foeman." After his third loss of Samarkand, Babur gave full attention to the conquest of North India.  Launching a campaign, he reached the Chenab River, now in Pakistan, in 1519. 

Until 1524, Babur's aim was to only expand his rule to Punjab, mainly to fulfill the legacy of his ancestor Timur, since it used to be part of his empire. At the time, parts of North India were part of the Delhi Sultanate, ruled by Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty, but the sultanate was crumbling and there were many defectors. Babur received invitations from Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of Punjab and Ala-ud-Din, uncle of Ibrahim. He sent an ambassador to Ibrahim, claiming himself the rightful heir to the throne, but the ambassador was detained at Lahore, Punjab, and was released months later.

Babur started for Lahore in 1524 but found that Daulat Khan Lodi had been driven out by forces sent by Ibrahim Lodi. When Babur arrived at Lahore, the Lodi army marched out and his army was routed. In response, Babur burned Lahore for two days, then marched to Dibalpur, placing Alam Khan, another rebel uncle of Lodi, as governor. Alam Khan was quickly overthrown and fled to Kabul. In response, Babur supplied Alam Khan with troops who later joined up with Daulat Khan Lodi, and together with about 30,000 troops, they besieged Ibrahim Lodi at Delhi. The sultan easily defeated and drove off Alam's army, and Babur realized that Ibrahim Lodi would not allow him to occupy the Punjab.

In November 1525, Babur got news at Peshawar that Daulat Khan Lodi had switched sides. Babur drove out Ala-ud-Din.Babur then marched onto Lahore to confront Daulat Khan Lodi, only to see Daulat's army melt away at their approach. Daulat surrendered and was pardoned. Thus, within three weeks of crossing the Indus River, Babur had become the master of Punjab.

Babur marched on to Delhi via Sirhind. He reached Panipat on April 20, 1526, and there met Ibrahim Lodi's numerically superior army of about 100,000 soldiers and 100 elephants.  In the battle that began on the following day, Babur used the tactic of Tulugma, encircling Ibrahim Lodi's army and forcing it to face artillery fire directly, as well as frightening its war elephants. Ibrahim Lodi died during the battle, thus ending the Lodi dynasty.

Babur wrote in his memoirs about his victory:

By the grace of the Almighty God, this difficult task was made easy to me and that mighty army, in the space of a half a day was laid in dust.

After the battle, Babur occupied Delhi and Agra, took the throne of Lodi, and laid the foundation for the eventual rise of Mughal rule in India. However, before he became North India's ruler, he had to fend off challengers, such as Rana Sanga.

Many of Babur's men allegedly wanted to leave India due to its warm climate, but Babur motivated them to stay and expand his empire.

The Battle of Khanwa was fought between Babur and the Rajput ruler of Mewar, Rana Sanga on March 16, 1527.  Rana Sanga wanted to overthrow Babur, whom he considered to be a foreigner ruling in India, and also to extend the Rajput territories by annexing Delhi and Agra. He was supported by Afghan chiefs who felt Babur had been deceptive by refusing to fulfil promises made to them. Upon receiving news of Rana Sangha's advance towards Agra, Babur took a defensive position at Khanwa (currently in the Indian state of Rajasthan), from where he hoped to launch a counterattack later. Babur won the battle because of his superior generalship and modern tactics; the battle was one of the first in India that featured cannons and muskets. Additionally, Rana Sanga faced treachery when the Hindu chief Silhadi joined Babur's army with a garrison of 6,000 soldiers.

Babur recognized Sanga's skill in leadership, calling him one of the two greatest non-Muslim Indian kings of the time, the other being Krisnadevaraya of Vijayanagara.

The Battle of Chanderi took place the year after the Battle of Khanwa. On receiving news that Rana Sanga had made preparations to renew the conflict with him, Babur decided to isolate the Rana by defeating one of his staunchest allies, Medini Rai, who was the ruler of Malwa.

Upon reaching Chanderi, on January 20, 1528, Babur offered Shamsabad to Medini Rao in exchange for Chanderi as a peace overture, but the offer was rejected. The outer fortress of Chanderi was taken by Babur's army at night, and the next morning the upper fort was captured. Babur himself expressed surprise that the upper fort had fallen within an hour of the final assault. Seeing no hope of victory, Medini Rai organized a jauhar, during which women and children within the fortress immolated themselves. A small number of soldiers also collected in Medini Rao's house and killed each other in collective suicide. This sacrifice does not seem to have impressed Babur, who did not express a word of admiration for the enemy in his autobiography.

Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, the last Sultan of the Lodi dynasty, in 1526. Babur ruled for four years and was succeeded by his son Humayun whose reign was temporarily usurped by the Suri dynasty. During their 30-year rule, religious violence continued in India. Records of the violence and trauma, from Sikh-Muslim perspective, include those recorded in Sikh literature of the 16th century. The violence of Babur in the 1520s was witnessed by Guru Nanak, who commented upon it in four hymns. Historians suggest that the early Mughal period of religious violence contributed to introspection and then the transformation in Sikhism from pacifism to militancy for self-defense.  According to Babur's autobiography, Baburnama, his campaign in northwest India targeted Hindus and Sikhs as well as apostates (non-Sunni sects of Islam), and an immense number were killed, with Muslim camps building "towers of skulls of the infidels" on hillocks.

There are no descriptions about Babur's physical appearance, except from the paintings in the translation of the Baburnama prepared during the reign of Akbar.  In his autobiography, Babur claimed to be strong and physically fit, and that he had swum across every major river he encountered, including twice across the Ganges River in North India. 

Babur did not initially know old Hindustani. However, his Turkic poetry indicates that he picked up some of its vocabulary later in life.

Unlike his father, Akbar had ascetic tendencies and did not have any great interest in women. In his first marriage, he was "bashful" towards Aisha Sultan Begum, later losing his affection for her. Babur showed similar shyness in his interactions with Baburi, a boy in his camp with whom he had an infatuation around this time, recounting that:

"Occasionally Baburi came to me, but I was so bashful that I could not look him in the face, much less converse freely with him. In my excitement and agitation I could not thank him for coming, much less complain of his leaving. Who could bear to demand the ceremonies of fealty?"

However, Babur acquired several more wives and concubines over the years, and as required for a prince, he was able to ensure the continuity of his line.

Babur's first wife, Aisha Sultan Begum, was his paternal cousin, the daughter of Sultan Ahmad Mirza, his father's brother. She was an infant when betrothed to Babur, who was himself five years old. They married eleven years later, c. 1498–99. The couple had one daughter, Fakhr-un-Nissa, who died within a year in 1500. Three years later, after Babur's first defeat at Fergana, Aisha left him and returned to her father's household. In 1504, Babur married Zaynab Sultan Begum, who died childless within two years. In the period 1506–08, Babur married four women, Maham Begum (in 1506), Masuma Sultan Begum, Gulrukh Begum and Dildar Begum. Babur had four children by Maham Begum, of whom only one survived infancy. This was his eldest son and heir, Humayun. Masuma Sultan Begum died during childbirth; the year of her death is disputed (either 1508 or 1519). Gulrukh bore Babur two sons, Kamran and Askari, and Dildar Begum was the mother of Babur's youngest son, Hindal. Babur later married Mubaraka Yusufzai, a Pashtun woman of the Yusufzai tribe. Gulnar Aghacha and Nargul Aghacha were two Circassian slaves given to Babur as gifts by Tahmasp Shah Safavi, the Shah of Persia. They became recognized ladies of the royal household.

During his rule in Kabul, when there was a time of relative peace, Babur pursued his interests in literature, art, music and gardening. Previously, he never drank alcohol and avoided it when he was in Herat. In Kabul, he first tasted it at the age of thirty. He then began to drink regularly, host wine parties and consume preparations made from opium. Though religion had a central place in his life, Babur also approvingly quoted a line of poetry by one of his contemporaries: "I am drunk, officer. Punish me when I am sober". He quit drinking for health reasons before the Battle of Khanwa, just two years before his death, and demanded that his court do the same. But he did not stop chewing narcotic preparations and did not lose his sense of irony. 

Babur was opposed to the blind obedience towards the Chinggisid laws and customs that were influential in Turco-Mongol society:

"Previously our ancestors had shown unusual respect for the Chingizid code (törah). They did not violate this code sitting and rising at councils and court, at feasts and dinners. [However] Chingez Khan’s code is not a nass qati (categorical text) that a person must follow. Whenever one leaves a good custom, it should be followed. If ancestors leave a bad custom, however it is necessary to substitute a good one."

Making clear that to him, the categorical text (i.e. the Qur'an) had displaced Genghis Khan's Yassa in moral and legal matters.

Babur was an acclaimed writer, who had a profound love for literature. His library was one of his most beloved possessions that he always carried around with him, and books were one of the treasures he searched for in new conquered lands. In his memoirs, when he listed sovereigns and nobles of a conquered land, he also mentioned poets, musicians and other educated people.

The consorts of Babur were

  • Aisha Sultan Begum (m. 1499; div. 1503), daughter of Sultan Ahmed Mirza — First wife of Babur
  • Zainab Sultan Begum (m. 1504; d. 1506–07), daughter of Sultan Mahmud Mirza 
  • Maham Begum (m. 1506) — Babur's chief and favorite consort
  • Masuma Sultan Begum (m. 1507; d. 1509), daughter of Sultan Ahmed Mirza and half-sister of Aisha Sultan Begum
  • Bibi Mubarika (m. 1519), Pashtun of the Yusufzai tribe
  • Gulrukh Begum (not to be confused with Babur's daughter Gulrukh Begum, who was also known as Gulbarg Begum)
  • Dildar Begum
  • Gulnar Aghacha, a Circassian concubine
  • Nargul Aghacha, a Circassian concubine

The identity of the mother of one of Babur's daughters, Gulrukh Begum is disputed. Gulrukh's mother may have been the daughter of Sultan Mahmud Mirza by his wife Pasha Begum who is referred to as Saliha Sultan Begum in certain secondary sources, however this name is not mentioned in the Baburnama nor in the works Gulbadan Begum which casts doubt on her existence. This woman may never have existed at all or she may even be the same woman as Dildar Begum.

The children of Babur were

The sons of Babur were:

  • Humayun (b. 1508; d. 1556) — with Maham Begum — succeeded Babur as the second Mughal Emperor 
  • Kamran Mirza (b. 1512; d. 1557) — with Gulrukh Begum
  • Askari Mirza (b. 1518; d. 1557) — with Gulrukh Begum
  • Hindal Mirza (b. 1519; d. 1551) — with Dildar Begum
  • Ahmad Mirza (d. young) — with Gulrukh Begum
  • Shahrukh Mirza (d. young) — with Gulrukh Begum
  • Barbul Mirza (d. infancy) — with Maham Begum 
  • Alwar Mirza (d. young) — with Dildar Begum
  • Faruq Mirza (d. infancy) — with Maham Begum

The daughters of Babur were:

  • Fakhr-un-Nissa Begum (b. & d. 1501) — with Aisha Sultan Begum 
  • Aisan Daulat Begum (d. infancy) — with Maham Begum 
  • Mehr Jahan Begum (d. infancy) — with Maham Begum
  • Unnamed (d. 1508 childbirth) — with Masuma Sultan Begum 
  • Gulzar Begum (d. infancy) — with Gulrukh Begum
  • Gulrukh Begum (Gulbarg Begum) — Identity of mother is disputed, may have been Dildar Begum or Saliha Sultan Begum — Married to Nuruddin Muhammad Mirza, son of Khwaja Hasan Naqshbandi, with whom she had Salima Sultan Begum, wife of Bairam Khan and later the Mughal Emperor Akbar. 
  • Gulbadan Begum (b. c. 1523 – d. 1603) — with Dildar Begum — Married Khizr Khwaja Khan, son of her father's cousin Aiman Khwajah Sultan of Moghulistan, son of Ahmad Alaq of Moghulistan, the maternal uncle of Emperor Babur.
  • Gulchehra Begum (b. c. 1515 – d. 1557) — with Dildar Begum — Married firstly in 1530 to Sultan Tukhta Bugha Khan, son of Ahmad Alaq of Moghulistan, the maternal uncle of Emperor Babur. Married secondly to Abbas Sultan Uzbeg.
  • Gulrang Begum — with Dildar Begum — Married in 1530 to Isan Timur Sultan, ninth son of Ahmad Alaq of Moghulistan, the maternal uncle of Emperor Babur.

Babur died in Agra at the age of 47 on January 5 [O. S. December 26,1530] 1531 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Humayun. He was first buried in Agra but, as per his wishes, his mortal remains were moved to Kabul and reburied in Bagh-e Babur in Kabul sometime between 1539 and 1544.

It is generally agreed that, as a Timurid, Babur was not only significantly influenced by the Persian culture, but also that his empire gave rise to the expansion of the Persianate ethos in the Indian subcontinent. He emerged in his own telling as a Timurid Renaissance inheritor, leaving signs of Islamic, artistic literary, and social aspects in India.

Babu's origin, milieu, training, and culture were steeped in Persian culture and so Babur was largely responsible for the fostering of this culture by his descendants, the Mughals of India, and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and historiographical results.

Although all applications of modern Central Asian ethnicities to people of Babur's time are anachronistic, Soviet and Uzbek sources regard Babur as an ethnic Uzbek. At the same time, during the Soviet Union times, Uzbek scholars were censored for idealizing and praising Babur and other historical figures such as Ali Shir Nava'i. 

Babur is considered a national hero in Uzbekistan. On February 14, 2008, stamps in his name were issued in the country to commemorate his 525th birth anniversary. Many of Babur's poems have become popular Uzbek folk songs. 

Shahenshah Babar, an Indian film about the emperor directed by Wajahat Mirza was released in 1944. The 1960 Indian biographical film Babar by Hemen Gupta covered the emperor's life with Gajanan Jagirdar in the lead role.

One of the enduring features of Babur's life was that he left behind the lively and well-written autobiography known as Baburnama. His autobiography is one of those priceless records which are for all time, and is fit to rank with the confessions of Saint Augustine and Rousseau, and the memoirs of Gibbon and Newton. In Asia, the Baburnama stands almost alone.

In own words, "The cream of my testimony is this, do nothing against your brothers even though they may deserve it." Also, "The new year, the spring, the wine and the beloved are joyful. Babur make merry, for the world will not be there for you a second time."

The Babri Masjid ("Babur's Mosque") in Ayodhya is said to have been constructed on the orders of Mir Baqi, one of the commanders of his army. In 2003, the Allahabad High Court ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a more in-depth study and an excavation to ascertain the type of structure beneath the mosque. The excavation was conducted from March 12, 2003, to August 7, 2003, resulting in 1360 discoveries.

The summary of the ASI report indicated the presence of a 10th-century temple under the mosque. The ASI team reported that human activity at the site dates back to the 13th century BCT. The next few layers date back to the Shunga period (second-first century BCT) and the Kushan period. During the early medieval period (11–12th century CC), a huge but short-lived structure of nearly 50 meters north–south orientation was constructed. On the remains of this structure, another massive structure was constructed: this structure had at least three structural phases and three successive floors attached with it. The report concluded that it was over the top of this construction that the disputed structure was constructed during the early 16th century. Archaeologist KK Muhammed, the only Muslim member in the team of people surveying the excavation, also confirmed individually that there existed a templelike structure before the Babri Masjid was constructed over it. The Indian Supreme Court judgment of 2019 granted the entire disputed land to the Hindus for construction of a temple, stating that Hindus continued to worship at the site and continued to hold the land outside the yard. It also held that there is nothing to prove that the structure, which was present before the construction of the mosque, was demolished for the purpose of building mosque or was already in ruins.

During his 47-year life, Babur left a rich literary and scientific heritage. He authored his famous memoir the Baburnama, as well as beautiful lyrical works or ghazals, treatises on Muslim jurisprudence (Mubayyin), poetics (Aruz risolasi), music, and a special calligraphy, known as khatt-i Baburi.

Babur's Baburnama is a collection of memoirs, written in the Chagatai language and later translated into Persian, the usual literary language of the Mughal court, during the rule of emperor Akbar. However, Babur's Turkic prose in Baburnama is already highly Persianized in its sentence structure, vocabulary, and morphology, and also consists of several phrases and minor poems in Persian.

Babur wrote most of his poems in Chagatai Turkic, known to him as Turki, but he also composed in Persian. However, he was mostly praised for his literary works written in Turkic, which drew comparison with the poetry of Ali-Shir Nava'i, the author of Lison ut-Tayr -- The Conference of the Birds.

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The Baburnama (literally, "History of Babur") is the memoirs of Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as Türki ("Turkic"), the spoken language of the Timurids. 

During the reign of Babur's grandson, the Emperor Akbar, the work was translated into Classical Persian, the literary language of the Mughal court, by a courtier, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, in 998 AH (1589–90 CC).

Babur was an educated Timurid prince and his observations and comments in his memoirs reflect an interest in nature, society, politics and economics. His vivid account of events covers not just his own life, but also the history and geography of the areas he lived in as well as the people with whom he came into contact. The book covers topics as diverse as astronomy, geography, statecraft, military matters, weapons and battles, plants and animals, biographies and family chronicles, courtiers and artists, poetry, music and paintings, wine parties, historical monument tours as well as contemplations on human nature.

Though Babur himself does not seem to have commissioned any illustrated versions, his grandson began as soon as he was presented with the finished Persian translation in November 1589. The first of four illustrated copies made under Akbar over the following decade or so was broken up for sale in 1913. Some 70 miniatures are dispersed among various collections, with 20 in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The three other versions, partly copied from the first, are in the National Museum, New Delhi (almost complete, dated 1597–98), the British Library (143 out of an original 183 miniatures, probably early 1590s) with a miniature over two pages in the British Museum, and a copy, mostly lacking the text, with the largest portions in the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow (57 folios) and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (30 miniatures). Various other collections have isolated miniatures from these versions. Later illustrated manuscripts were also made, though not on as a grand a scale.

Babur is at the center of most scenes shown. As far as known, no contemporary images of him survive, but from whatever sources they had Akbar's artists devised a fairly consistent representation of him, "with a roundish face and droopy moustache", wearing a Central Asian style of turban and a short-sleeved coat over a robe with long sleeves. Coming from a period after Akbar's workshop had developed their new style of Mughal painting, the illustrated Baburnamas show developments such as landscape views with a recession, influenced by Western art seen at court. Generally, the scenes are less crowded than in earlier miniatures of "historical" scenes.

Babur's Chagatai prose is highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary, and also contains many phrases and smaller poems in Persian. 

The Baburnama begins abruptly with these plain words:

In the month of Ramadan of the year 899 [1494] and in the twelfth year of my age, I became ruler in the country of Farghana. 

Babur describes his fluctuating fortunes as a minor ruler in Central Asia – he took and lost Samarkand twice – and his move to Kabul in 1504. There is a break in all known manuscripts between 1508 and 1519. There are various points in his highly active career, and that of his son Humayun, where parts of the original manuscript might plausibly have been lost.

By 1519, Babur was established in Kabul and from there launched an invasion into north-western India. The final section of the Baburnama covers the years 1525 to 1529 and the establishment of the Mughal Empire over what was by his death still a relatively small part of north-western India, which Babur's descendants would expand and rule for three centuries.

The account of the decisive First Battle of Panipat in 1526 is followed by long descriptions of India, its people, fauna and flora. Various exciting incidents are recounted and illustrated: Babur jumps off his horse just in time to avoid following it into a river, and when his army has formed its boats into a circle a fish jumps into a boat to escape from a crocodile.

The original Chagatai language text does not seem to have existed in many copies, and those that survive are mostly partial. The copy seen in the Mughal Library in the 1620s, and presumably used to base the Persian translation on, seems to have been lost.

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Babur (Persian: “Tiger”) (b. February 15, 1483, in the principality of Fergana [now in Uzbekistan] — d. December 26, 1530, Agra, Mughal India) was the founder of the Mughal dynasty of northern India. Babur, a descendant of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan and also of the Turkic conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), was a military adventurer, a soldier of distinction, and a poet and diarist of genius, as well as a statesman.

Babur came from the Barlas tribe of Mongol origin, but isolated members of the tribe considered themselves Turks in language and customs through long residence in Turkish regions. Hence, Babur, though called a Mughal, drew most of his support from Turks, and the empire he founded was Turkish in character. His family had become members of the Chagatai clan, by which name they are known. He was fifth in male succession from Timur and 13th through the female line from Genghis Khan. Babur’s father, ʿUmar Shaykh Mirza, ruled the small principality of Fergana to the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range. Because there was no fixed law of succession among the Turks, every prince of the Timurids -- the dynasty founded by Timur -- considered it his right to rule the whole of Timur’s dominions. Those territories were vast, and, hence, the princes’ claims led to unending wars between them. The Timurid princes, moreover, considered themselves kings by profession, their business being to rule others without observing too precisely whether any particular region had actually formed a part of Timur’s empire. Babur’s father, true to that tradition, spent his life trying to recover Timur’s old capital of Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), and Babur followed in his footsteps. The qualities needed to succeed in that dynastic warfare were the abilities to inspire loyalty and devotion, to manage the turbulent factions often caused by family feuds, and to draw revenue from the trading and agricultural classes. Babur eventually mastered them all, but he was also a commander of genius.

For 10 years (1494–1504) Babur sought to recover Samarkand and twice occupied it briefly (in 1497 and 1501). But in Muhammad Shaybani Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan and ruler of the Uzbeks beyond the Jaxartes River (ancient name for the Syr Darya), he had an opponent more powerful than even his closest relatives. In 1501, Babur was decisively defeated at Sar-e Pol and within three years had lost both Samarkand and his principality of Fergana. There was always hope at that time, however, for a prince with engaging qualities and strong leadership abilities. In 1504, Babur seized Kabul (Afghanistan) with his personal followers, maintaining himself there against all rebellions and intrigues. His last unsuccessful attempt on Samarkand (1511–12) induced him to give up a futile quest and to concentrate on expansion elsewhere. In 1522, when he was already turning his attention to Sindh (now a province in Pakistan) and India, he finally secured Kandahar, a strategic site (now in Afghanistan) on the road to Sindh.

When Babur made his first raid into India in 1519, the Punjab region (now divided between India and Pakistan) was part of the dominions of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi, but the governor, Dawlat Khan Lodi, resented Ibrahim’s attempts to diminish his authority. By 1524, Babur had invaded the Punjab three more times but was unable to master the tangled course of Punjab and Delhi politics sufficiently enough to achieve a firm foothold. Yet it was clear that the Delhi sultanate was involved in contentious quarreling and ripe for overthrow. After mounting a full-scale attack there, Babur was recalled by an Uzbek attack on his Kabul kingdom, but a joint request for help from 'Alam Khan, Ibrahim’s uncle, and Dawlat Khan encouraged Babur to attempt his fifth, and first successful, raid.

Setting out in November 1525, Babur met Ibrahim at Panipat, 50 miles (80 km) north of Delhi, on April 21, 1526. Babur’s army was estimated at no more than 12,000, but they were seasoned followers, adept at cavalry tactics, and were aided by new artillery acquired from the Ottoman Turks. Ibrahim’s army was said to number 100,000 with 100 elephants, but its tactics were antiquated and it was dissentious. Babur won the battle by coolness under fire, his use of artillery, and effective Turkish wheeling tactics on a divided, dispirited enemy. Ibrahim was killed in battle. With his usual speed, Babur occupied Delhi three days later and reached Agra on May 4. His first action there was to lay out a garden, now known as the Ram Bagh, by the Yamuna (Jumna) River. 

That brilliant success must have seemed at the time to be of little difference from one of his former forays on Samarkand. His small force, burdened by the oppressive weather and located 800 miles (1,300 km) from their base at Kabul, was surrounded by powerful foes. All down the Ganges (Ganga) River valley were militant Afghan chiefs, in disarray but with a formidable military potential. To the south, were the kingdoms of Malwa and Gujarat, both with extensive resources, while in Rajasthan Rana Sanga of Mewar (Udaipur) was head of a powerful confederacy threatening the whole Muslim position in northern India. Babur’s first problem was that his own followers, suffering from the heat and disheartened by the hostile surroundings, wished to return home as Timur had done. By employing threats, reproaches, promises, and appeals, vividly described in his memoirs, Babur diverted them. He then dealt with Rana Sanga, who, when he found that Babur was not retiring as his Turkish ancestor had done, advanced with an estimated 100,000 horses and 500 elephants. With most of the neighboring strongholds still held by his foes, Babur was virtually surrounded. He sought divine favor by abjuring liquor, breaking the wine vessels and pouring the wine down a well. His followers responded both to that act and his stirring exhortations and stood their ground at Khanna, 37 miles (60 km) west of Agra, on March 16, 1527. Babur used his customary tactics—a barrier of wagons for his center, with gaps for the artillery and for cavalry sallies, and wheeling cavalry charges on the wings. The artillery stampeded the elephants, and the flank charges bewildered the Rajputs (ruling warrior caste), who, after 10 hours, broke, never to rally under a single leader again.

Babur now had to deal with the defiant Afghans to the east, who had captured Lucknow while he was facing Rana Sanga. Other Afghans had rallied to Sultan Ibrahim’s brother Maḥmud Lodi, who had occupied Bihar. There were also Rajput chiefs still defying him, principally the ruler of Chanderi. After capturing that fortress in January 1528, Babur turned to the east. Crossing the Ganges, he drove the Afghan captor of Lucknow into Bengal. He then turned on Maḥmud Lodi, whose army was scattered in Babur’s third great victory, that of the Ghaghara, where that river joins the Ganges, on May 6, 1529. Artillery was again decisive, helped by the skillful handling of boats.

Babur’s dominions were now secure from Kandahar to the borders of Bengal, with a southern limit marked by the Rajput desert and the forts of Ranthambhor, Gwalior, and Chanderi. Within that great area, however, there was no settled administration, only a congeries of quarreling chiefs. An empire had been gained but still had to be pacified and organized. It was thus a precarious heritage that Babur passed on to his son Humayun. 

In 1530, when Humayun became deathly ill, Babur is said to have offered his life to God in exchange for Humayun’s, walking seven times around the bed to complete the vow. Humayun recovered and Babur’s health declined. Babur died the same year.

Babur is rightly considered the founder of the Mughal Empire, even though the work of consolidating the empire was performed by his grandson Akbar.  Babur, moreover, provided the magnetic leadership that inspired the next two generations.

Babur was a military adventurer of genius and an empire builder of good fortune, with an engaging personality. He was also a gifted Turki poet, which would have won him distinction apart from his political career, as well as a lover of nature who constructed gardens wherever he went and complemented beautiful spots by holding convivial parties. Finally, his prose memoirs, the Babur-nama have become a renowned autobiography. They were translated from Turki into Persian in Akbar’s reign (1589), were translated into English, Memoirs of Babur, in two volumes, and were first published in 1921–22. They portray a ruler unusually magnanimous for his age, cultured, and witty, with an adventurous spirit and an acute eye for natural beauty.

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Babur | Biography & Achievements | Britannica

Babur - Wikipedia

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