A Thematic Comparison of the Qazals by Hafez and Motanabi

Motanabi and Hafez are two great figures in Arabic and Persian literature. They are most famous for borrowing from works by their predecessors and reformulating them within a novel framework, which is the result of their creative minds. Motanabi often starts Qasayed with a Qazal which is often motivated by the taste of the people in his era. While Hafez primarily writes Qazals in love with this type of poetry and believes that love is above all other phenomena in the world. Motanabi downgrades love to the level of a disease. Nevertheless, both poets have written Qazal with different motivation.Hafez is greatly influenced by Arabic literature and he has even used a line of Motanabi's poetry in his Divan. In addition, there are very similar issues in the works of these two poets often recognized by literary critics. This paper will compare and contrast topics in the works of these two poets highlighting the attitude of these two poets with regard to the genre of Qazal.