Hafez Tomb

Khajeh Shams al-Din Shirazi, known as “Hafez”, is the eminent Persian poet and one of the masters of Persian literature. He was born around the year 726 AH in Shiraz. He acquired knowledge and arts in the company of the scholars of his time and reached a high level of proficiency in literary sciences. Especially, he deeply pondered over divine sciences and contemplated the Qur’an with fourteen different interpretations.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German scholar, poet, and famous orator, compiled his Eastern Diwan inspired by his thoughts and ideas. His poetry collection includes ghazals, some quatrains, and rubaiyat. He passed away in 792 AH in Shiraz. His tomb in Hafezieh in Shiraz is a pilgrimage site for admirers and lovers of Persian poetry and literature. Hafezieh (Hafez Tomb) is a complex located in the north of Shiraz and south of Quran Gate. This complex has become famous because it houses the tomb of Hafez Shirazi.

The main building of Hafez Tomb is the work of Karim Khan Zand and dates back to 1187 AH. The original structure had a central portico with four stone columns passing through it from the north and south sides, with two rooms built on each side. Hafez’s grave was located outside this building and in the middle of the cemetery behind it. In later periods, iron railings were placed around the grave, which did not have a proper aesthetic appearance.

Between 1314 and 1317 AH, the shrine of Hafez was rebuilt to its current form while preserving the four original stone pillars. The current shrine has a large portico with twenty columns, decorated with paintings, plasterwork, and tilework, all done in the original and authentic Shirazi style. Verses of Hafez’s poetry are inscribed in the middle of the large portico in the second garden. The old tombstone remained in its original place, and the tombs of Aholi Shirazi and Forough al-Dole Shirazi are also located at the bottom of the Hafez Tomb.