TEHRAN -- Charles-Henri de Fouchécour, the renowned French Iranologist who produced the first complete translation of the Divan of Hafez into French with extensive commentary, has passed away at the age of 100 in the city of Valence in southern France. 
He died on June 19, 2026. His name became well-known in Iranian literary circles through his translations of Hafez’s poetry, his translation of the Maqalat of Shams-e Tabrizi, and his extensive research on Persian literature.
Fouchécour’s journey to becoming a master of Persian literature began in an unusual way. He spent his first seventeen years in Morocco, where his father worked as a railway engineer. Though he had little contact with the local population during that time, the experience sparked his interest in Islamic civilization. 
He later spent two years in Tunisia studying Arabic. It was there that his Arabic teacher advised him that to truly understand Islamic civilization, he must learn Persian, as Iranians had played a crucial role in its foundation. This advice set him on his life’s path.
He returned to Paris to study Persian language and literature, earning his doctorate under the guidance of his mentor, Gilbert Lazard, who later became a close friend. He also studied under prominent figures such as Henry Corbin, whom he credited with the deepest influence on his understanding of Iran—not only its Islamic culture but also its Zoroastrian and pre-Islamic roots. 
In 1968, he had the opportunity to travel to Iran as a researcher for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he benefited greatly from conversations with Iranian scholars such as Zabihollah Safa and Iraj Afshar. He also acknowledged the influence of Nasrollah Purjavadi, Bahā’ al-Din Khorramshahi, and Hashem Javid.
His most significant work is the French translation of the Divan of Hafez—a prose translation with detailed commentary and annotations to make the rich tradition of Persian poetry accessible to French readers unfamiliar with it. 
Fouchécour was critical of earlier partial translations, particularly that of Vincent Monteil, who had translated one hundred ghazals into rhymed French verse. He believed that rendering Hafez’s poetry into French verse was impossible and would inevitably stray from the original text. 
Fouchécour insisted that his translation was prose because he could not, in good conscience, recommend a verse translation to students when it contained at least two serious errors in each ghazal. He argued that Hafez’s poetry could not be forced into such translations.
Despite spending 18 years immersed in Hafez’s work, Fouchécour remained humble about his own understanding. He always feared that he might not have fully grasped the poetry, confessing that the fear of misunderstanding Hafez still lingered with him. 
In the documentary Majnun (2012), directed by Muhammad-Ali Farsi, he offered a striking insight into the complexity of Hafez’s poetry, stating: “Hafez is difficult because he speaks so simply.” When asked which French

 poet could be compared to Hafez, he famously responded: “Hafez is something else entirely.” 
Fouchécour also wrote Moralia, a study of ethical concepts in Persian literature from the 3rd to the 7th centuries AH. In its introduction, he emphasized the uniqueness of Persian culture, noting that Persian was neither Arabic, Pahlavi, nor Greek, and that its distinctiveness lay in its continuity with its past and its dynamic response to history.
He served as director of the Iranology Department of the French Institute in Tehran from 1975 to 1979 and held the chair of Persian literature at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris from 1972 to 1985. He also founded and directed Abstracta Iranica, a bibliographical and critical review of Iranian studies.
His memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 27, in Beaumont-lès-Valence, and his ashes will be interred at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.