Rose petals let us scatter And fill the cup with red wine The firmaments let us shatter And come up with a new design The first post of this blog opens with Hafez (circa 1320-1389), a master of Persian poetry who composed some 500 ghazals in praise of his Beloved. Early Years Born in Shiraz as Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad, he later took the pen name Hafez (Hafiz) for he had memorized the Qu’ran in his teens, as well as the many works of Saadi, Attar, Rumi and Nizami. The details of his life especially of his early years are …