Fateme Montazeri
Graduate Theological Union
An illustration from a sixteenth-century Iranian manuscript of Hafez’s collected works shows an unprecedented and rather curious subject: “hypocrisy.” Signed by Sheikh Zadeh, it shows the elaborately decorated interior of a mosque with groups of men attending a sermon given by a preacher addressing them from a pulpit above. The inscriptions in the illustration quote poems by Hafez on pretentious preachers who do not practice what they preach. This study considers the social conditions that underlie the selection of this poem for illustration. Bridging the sociohistorical and artistic contexts, it examines whether the selection and illustration of this poem might be considered the artistic statement of an objection to the new religious structure of society.
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