Sudi as an Avant-Garde Commentator of Hafiz’s Divan: different view of Sudi’s commentary approach

Abstract

Divan by Hafiz Shirazi, a Persian poet of the 14th century, is one of the most important collections of lyric poetry within the Persian and general literary tradition of the Oriental-Islamic cultural circle. Since the creation of Divan, there has been a dispute over its interpretation, and therefore the genre position. Although most of the commentators in the Orient interpret Hafiz’s Divan as key to Sufi poetry, Ahmed Sudi Bosnevi, a Bosnian philologist of 16th century, does not follow such an approach and makes an avant-garde advance in terms of the interpretation of Hafiz’s poetry. In this paper, the reasons for such Sudi’s comments are discussed.