The Hidden Text of Hafez’s Ghazals

The intertwining of Iranian and Arabic cultures and the exchanges between Persian and Arabic literature are obvious due to their proximity. However, analyzing the specifics of these borrowings and the Iranian character’s influence on what has been received from Arabic adds subtlety to this range of studies and makes accepting some broad claims difficult. For example, common literary forms and themes such as erotic poetry, epistles, and maqamat that entered Persian literature from Arabic are so diverse and widespread that in some genres, they resulted only in mere imitation, erasing the artist’s originality. This research aims to elucidate Hafez’s poetic influence from Arabic and the linguistic and literary possibilities that Arabic culture provided him, explaining his rational approach in that era. It attempts to describe and analyze some Arabic cultural allusions and nuances in the poet’s divan through words, combinations, imagery, rhyme, and more. In any case, Arabic influence, Arabic writing, and even Arabic dependency during certain historical periods are features of Iranian culture, which today, with changing perceptions of Arabic culture, have become difficult for Iranians to accept without further study and clearing the haze of time.