Truls Ljungström’s Reviews > In the Alley of the Friend: On the Poetry of Hafez > Status Update

In the Islamic period, Muslims interpreting magi (majus) to mean “Zoroastrian” considered them to be worshippers of Hormoz, the god of light, to be fire worshippers and wine drinkers, and they avoided them. The poet chooses just such an undesirable figure as his desired ideal. He turns away from the war among the seventy-two factions.