Social Values in Hâfız-ı Şîrâzî’s Divan

Hâfız-ı Şîrâzî, a poet from Iran, occupied an important place in the literature of Iran. The effect of Hâfız on Iranian literature and society still continues today. The purpose of this study is to determine the values which are a product of the social structure of its period transmitted by a literary work, which still maintains its relevance today. Given that literary works reflect the social structure of the period when they were written and which imbue society with emotions, ideas and behaviors, the values in Hâfız’s divan were identified and which values were repeated more than the others were determine. In this way, it was intended to reach preliminary information about the value system of the Iranian society and the origins of this system. The method of the study is text analysis and its technique is content analysis. The values in Hâfız’s Divan were determined using the text analysis and content analysis and how many times these values were repeated was investigated. It was hypothesized that repeat numbers were intended to indicate value and emphasized importance. In addition to the quantitative analysis of the values in Hâfız’s Divan, the values adopted by students at Shiraz University Department of Persian Language and Literature who were required to read Hâfız’s Divan frequently, were examined. The purpose here was to determine whether or not the students of Persian Language were influenced by the values treated in Hâfız’s Divan. The present study was completed in a period of 6 (six) months in the city of Shiraz in İran, where Hâfız lived, between 24th September 2018 and 24th March 2019. The scope of the study covers Hâfız’s Divan and the social values in the Divan. To this end, Persian and Turkish versions of Hâfız’s divan were examined comparatively. In addition, interviews were held and the topic was discussed at the Center for Hafiz Studies, where courses were offered on Hafiz and his works were kept alive. The interviewees contributed to interpretation of values in Hâfız’s couplets. The study is limited to Hâfız’s Divan and social values. The most frequently repeated values in Hâfız’s Divan are “religiosity” and “fidelity”. It could be said that the values of self-consciousness and honesty reflect the period when Hâfız lived, and the social conditions or characteristics of that period. Though repeated less than these values, repetition of the values of competition, pleasure, being carefree, accomplishment, an exciting life, individuality, freedom, equality, being a consumer/consumerism and world peace indicates that these values did not emerge today but rather that they also existed in the period when Hâfız lived. This situation makes it necessary that values need to be categorized definitely in value studies. The fact that past societies also possessed these values and transmitted them through literature lead us to think that today’s societies could adopt these values more easily. In this respect, these values enjoy higher recognition in the Iranian society of today are attached more importance.