Table of Contents

Preface by Ibrahim Gamard 1
Who Is Hafiz? 11
A Short Introduction to Hafiz's Mysticism 33

The Poems 45

Notes to the Poems 99
Notes 115
About the Translator 117
Index of Poems (by title) 119
Index of First Lines 121
Other Books in the Mystic Poets Series 123

About the Author

Gertrude Bell (1868–1926) was an adventurer, scholar, linguist and British intelligence officer. Bell's courageous travels in the Islamic world of the Middle East in the late nineteenth century offered some of the first Western understandings of the culture and people of the lands of modern-day Iraq and Iran. Her translations of the poems of Hafiz are still considered by many scholars to be the most faithful of any in the English language.

Ibrahim Gamard is a member of the Mevlevi Order, a 730-year-old Sufi order which originated with Rumi himself.