Hafez

Persian poet

c. 1325 – 1390 · 65 years · Shiraz · Middle East

Master of the ghazal and Persian poetry's greatest lyricist; Iranians still consult his Divan for divination.

Portrait: Anselm Feuerbach · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 9 years older
Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 13 years older
Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 42 years younger
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 43 years younger
Petrarch — humanist poet, 21 years older
Geoffrey Chaucer — poet, author of The Canterbury Tales, 18 years younger

Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 11 years older
Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 25 years younger
Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 35 years younger
Ivan Kalita — prince who began the gathering of Russian lands around Moscow, 37 years older
Ivan II the Fair — grand prince of Moscow, father of Dmitry Donskoy, 1 year younger
Simeon the Proud — grand prince "of all Rus" who died of the plague, 9 years older

Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 1 year younger
Orhan — bey who took Bursa and led the Ottomans into Europe, 44 years older
Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 35 years younger

Timur — emir and conqueror, 11 years younger
Ashikaga Takauji — founder of the Muromachi shogunate who turned on Go-Daigo, 20 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 33 years younger
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 46 years younger
Emperor Go-Daigo — emperor who overthrew the Kamakura shogunate, 37 years older
Gajah Mada — prime minister of Majapahit, 35 years older

c. 1325 Founding of Tenochtitlan — aged 0, Americas
c. 1327 The Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu — aged 2, Africa
1337–1453 Hundred Years' War — aged 12, Europe
c. 1337 Sergius of Radonezh founds his monastery — aged 12, Eastern Europe & Russia
1347–1351 Black Death — aged 22, Europe
1368 Founding of the Ming dynasty — aged 43, Asia
1370 Timur makes Samarkand his capital — aged 45, Asia
1377 Jikji, printed with movable metal type — aged 52, Asia
1380 Battle of Kulikovo — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia
1385 Union of Krewo — aged 60, Europe