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Abu Mu?li? bin Abdallah Shirazi (1184 – 1283/1291?), better known by his pen-name as Sa'adi , was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is recognized not only for the quality of his writing, but also for the depth of his social thoughts.

tive of Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran

Shiraz is the sixth most populated city in Iran and the capital of Fars Province. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Rudkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river....
, Iran
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, Sheikh Sa'adi left his native town at a young age for Baghdad
Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
 to study Arabic literature
Arabic literature

Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language such as Persian literature and Urdu literature....
 and Islamic sciences at the famous an-Nizzamiya
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad

Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad was an early Nizamiyya, arguably the first ever, established in July of 1091, when Nizam al-Mulk appointed the 33-year-old Al-Ghazali as a professor of the school....
 center of knowledge (1195-1226).

The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Iran led him to wander abroad through Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
, Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, and Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.






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Abu Mu?li? bin Abdallah Shirazi (1184 – 1283/1291?), better known by his pen-name as Sa'adi , was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is recognized not only for the quality of his writing, but also for the depth of his social thoughts.

Biography

A native of Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran

Shiraz is the sixth most populated city in Iran and the capital of Fars Province. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Rudkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river....
, Iran
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, Sheikh Sa'adi left his native town at a young age for Baghdad
Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
 to study Arabic literature
Arabic literature

Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers of the Arabic language. It does not usually include works written using the Arabic alphabet but not in the Arabic language such as Persian literature and Urdu literature....
 and Islamic sciences at the famous an-Nizzamiya
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad

Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad was an early Nizamiyya, arguably the first ever, established in July of 1091, when Nizam al-Mulk appointed the 33-year-old Al-Ghazali as a professor of the school....
 center of knowledge (1195-1226).

The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Iran led him to wander abroad through Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
, Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, and Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. He also refers in his work to travels in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
. Saadi is very much like Marco Polo
Marco Polo

Marco Polo was a trader and exploration from the Venetian Republic who gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book Il Milione also known as Oriente Poliano and the Description of the World....
 who travelled in the region from 1271 to 1294. There is a difference, however, between the two. While Marco Polo gravitated to the potentates and the good life, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the Mongol holocaust. He sat in remote teahouses late into the night and exchanged views with merchants, farmers, preachers, wayfarers, thieves, and Sufi mendicants. For twenty years or more, he continued the same schedule of preaching, advising, learning, honing his sermons, and polishing them into gems illuminating the wisdom and foibles of his people.

When he reappeared in his native Shiraz he was an elderly man. Shiraz, under Atabak Abubakr Sa'd ibn Zangy (1231-60) was enjoying an era of relative tranquility. Saadi was not only welcomed to the city but was respected highly by the ruler and enumerated among the greats of the province. In response, Saadi took his nom de plume
Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of...
 from the name of the local prince, Sa'd ibn Zangi, and composed some of his most delightful panegyrics as an initial gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed them at the beginning of his Bustan. He seems to have spent the rest of his life in Shiraz.

His works

His best known works are Bustan
Bostan

Bostan is a book of poetry by the Persian poet Saadi , completed in 1257.It was Saadi's first work, and its title means "the fruit orchard"....
 ("The Orchard") completed in 1257 and Gulistan
Gulistan of Sa'di

Gulistan is a landmark literary work in Persian literature. Written in 1259 C.E., it is one of two magna opera of the Persian poet Saadi, considered one of the best medieval Persian poets....
 ("The Rose Garden") in 1258. Bustan is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behaviour of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. Gulistan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.

For Western students, Bustan and Gulistan have a special attraction; but Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist, the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad
Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
 after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat ("Lyrics") and his odes in Qasa'id ("Odes"). He is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humour, and resignation displayed in Saadi's works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most typical and loveable writer in the world of Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
ian culture.

Alexander Pushkin, one of Russia's most celebrated poets, quotes Saadi in his masterpiece Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes....
 :
as Saadi sang in earlier ages,
"some are far distant, some are dead".


Saadi distinguished between the spiritual and the practical or mundane aspects of life. In his Bustan, for example, spiritual Saadi uses the mundane world as a spring board to propel himself beyond the earthly realms. The images in Bustan are delicate in nature and soothing. In the Gulistan, on the other hand, mundane Saadi lowers the spiritual to touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. Here the images are graphic and, thanks to Saadi's dexterity, remain concrete in the reader's mind. Realistically, too, there is a ring of truth in the division. The Sheikh preaching in the Khanqah
Khanqah

A khanqah, khaniqah , ribat, zawiya, or tekke is a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood, or tariqa, and is a place for spiritual retreat and character reformation....
 experiences a totally different world than the merchant passing through a town. The unique thing about Saadi is that he embodies both the Sufi Sheikh and the travelling merchant. They are, as he himself puts it, two almond kernels in the same shell.

Saadi's prose style, described as "simple but impossible to imitate" flows quite naturally and effortlessly. Its simplicity, however, is grounded in a semantic web consisting of synonymy, homophony
Homophony

In music, homophony Homophony as a term first appeared in English with Charles Burney in 1776, emphasizing the concord of harmonized melody....
, and oxymoron
Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradiction terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek language oxy and moros ....
 buttressed by internal rhythm
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
 and external rhyme
Rhyme

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes....
 something that Dr. Iraj Bashiri captures quite skillfully in his transcreation of the opening words of the work:

Chief among these works is Goethe's West-Oestlicher Divan. Andre du Ryer
Andre du Ryer

Andr? Du Ryer was a French people orientalist who wrote the third western translation of the Qur'an....
 was the first European to present Saadi to the West, by means of a partial French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 translation of Gulistan in 1634. Adam Olearius
Adam Olearius

Adam Olearius was a Germany scholar, mathematician, geographer and librarian. He became secretary to the ambassador sent by Frederick III, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, to the Shah of Persian Empire, and published two books about the events and observations during his travels....
 followed soon with a complete translation of the Bustan and the Gulistan into German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 in 1654.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the transcendentalism movement in the early 19th century. His teachings directly influenced the growing New Thought movement of the mid 1800s....
 was also an avid fan of Sadi's writings, contributing to some translated editions himself. Emerson, who read Saadi only in translation, compared his writing to the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 in terms of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative.

One of his more famous quotes is, "Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste." Another famous poem focuses on the oneness of mankind.


Dr. Iraj Bashiri of the University of Minnesota, in his translation of the opening words of Sa'adi's ?Gulestan, offers the following translation:?
Of One Essence is the Human Race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base.
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.
The Unconcern'd with Others' Plight,
Are but Brutes with Human Face.


See also

  • List of Persian poets and authors
    List of Persian poets and authors

    The list is not comprehensive, but is continuously being expanded and includes Persian language writers and poets from Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and India....
  • Persian literature
    Persian literature

    Persian literature spans two and a half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources has been within historical greater Iran including present-day Iran as well as reigions of Central Asia where the Persian language has been the national language through history....
  • Persian literature in the West
    Persian literature in the West

    Persian literature has had influences on many writers and cultures outside of its boundaries. In order to avoid what Edward Granville Browne calls "an altogether inadequate judgment of the intellectual activity of that ingenious and talented people" Persian literature in The West#References, many top calibre centers of academia...
  • Islamic scholars


External links

  • The Bustan of Saadi, English translation, 74 p., Iran Chamber Society ().
  • The Golestan of Saadi, translated by Richard Francis Burton
    Richard Francis Burton

    Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton Order of St Michael and St George Royal Geographic Society was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguistics, poet, hypnotism, fencing and diplomat....
    , 213 p., Iran Chamber Society ().
  • Golestan Saadi, the complete work, in Persian (). This work can be freely downloaded (File size, compiled in pdf format: 485 KB).


  • Saadi Shirazi, Sheikh Mosleh al-Din, Persian Language & Literature, .
  • The Gulistan of Sa'di http://classics.mit.edu/Sadi/gulistan.html
  • English translations of Saadi's poetry.
  • , a biography by Professor Iraj Bashiri
    Iraj Bashiri

    Iraj Bashiri is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, USA? and one of the leading scholars in the fields of Central Asian Studies and Iranian Studies....
    , University of Minnesota
    University of Minnesota

    The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public university research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota, United States....
    .
  • , Encyclopaedia Iranica (Columbia University
    Columbia University

    Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
    ).
  • (in Persian)