A Critical study on Attributing Hafiz to Malamat Faction

This article presents a critical study of two groups of Hafiz’s poetry commentators who have introduced him as Malamati or as a poet inclined to the customs of Malamat. Due to the wide time gap between the mallamat epoch and the time Hafiz lived, the first group’s emphasis on Hafiz as being a Malamati is doubtful. This article seeks to refute the claim made by the second group that Hafiz was inclined to mallamati thoughts by adhering to their doctrines. The same group has charecrterised gafiz's Erfan as a Malamt one.To this end; this article discusses seven cases of agreement and disagreement between Hafiz’s poetry and Malamatis’ opinions in order to highlight contradictory interpretations in his poetry and the lack of such interpretations in the discourse of Malamati proponents. Then, this study has attempted to find a reason compatible with his linguistic logic and poetic construction for agreements and disagreements between Hafiz’s poetry and Malamatis’ opinions. Eventually, according to the reasons presented, it is concluded that Hafiz is by no means a propagandist for any official or unofficial thought. He is a freethinking poet who doesn’t fit any sort of mystical or nonmystical doctrines, and his art is of the highest value to him. Nevertheless, his poetry’s interpretability and, on the other hand, commentators’ efforts to present a response more compatible with the current expectations have led to attributing the title Malamat to him.