| The fundamental purpose of this dissertation is a comparative study of the concepts of love and the Beloved in the ghazals (lyrics) of Sa`d i&d1; (d. 1292) and Hafez (d. 1389), world-renowned Persian poets. Sa'd i&d1; is famous for his prose works: the Bustan [The Orchard] and the Gulistan [The Rose Garden]. His ghazals are greatly loved in Persian-speaking countries. Hafez is most famous for his ghazals. Through their ghazals, the personalities of these poets complement each other. The personality of the Beloved along with the concept of love emerges in the Persian ghazal and attain their rightful places in Persian literature.;Critical analysis of Persian poetry is a relatively new field of research. In this study, the concept of love in the ghazals of Sa'd i&d1; and Hafez is analyzed from the sacred and profane points of view. Each poet's approach to love is also analyzed;Throughout the ages, the beloved in the Persian ghazal has been identified by readers and commentators as sacred and profane. In this dissertation, Sa'd i&d1; 's articulation of the sacred and profane beloveds is first closely analyzed, and in this process emerging patterns are found. The same kind of critical analysis is also used with the ghazals of Hafez. The main contributions of this study are comparisons of the authors' ideologies, attitudes, and portrayals of the various beloveds. In the scholarship of others, general comparisons and the influences of Sa'd i&d1; on Hafez have been given ample attention. To date, however, there is no work comparing these great poets with regard to their concepts of love and their multifaceted beloveds. In this dissertation, their concepts of love and the beloved, both sacred and profane (mystical and earthly), are studied and compared. This is achieved through an analysis of their personalities as revealed in their verses, taking into account the intellectual, religious, and cultural milieu of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Shiraz. |
