Saadi Shirazi

Ab-Muhammad Muslih al-Dn bin Abdallh Shrz[2] (Persian:

Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn-
) , better known by his pen-name Saadi ( Sad(
Abdullah Shirazi
Sa'di )), also known as Saadi of Shiraz ( Saadi Shirazi), was a
major Persian poet and literary of the medieval period. He is recognized for the
quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts. Saadi is
widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition,
earning him the nickname "Master of Speech" ( ) or "The Master" among
Persian scholars. He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well.[1]

Contents
1 Biography
2 Works
2.1 Bustan and Gulistan
2.2 Other works
2.3 Bani Adam
3 Legacy and poetic style
4 Mausoleum
5 See also
6 Notes Saadi in a Rose garden, from a
7 References Mughal manuscript of his work
8 External links
Gulistan, c. 1645
Born 1210[1]
Shiraz, Iran
Biography Died 1291 or 1292[1]
Shiraz
Saadi was born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1208, or a little earlier. In the Golestan, composed
in 1258, he says in lines evidently addressed to himself, "O you who have lived fifty School Persian poetry, Persian
years and are still asleep"; another piece of evidence is that in one of his qasida literature
poems he writes that he left home for foreign lands when the Mongols came to his Main Poetry, Mysticism, Logic,
homeland Fars, an event which occurred in 1225.[3] interests Ethics, Sufism

It seems that his father died when he was a child. He narrates memories of going out
with his father as a child during festivities.

After leaving Shiraz he enrolled at the Nizamiyya University in Baghdad, where he studied Islamic sciences, law, governance,
history, Arabic literature, and Islamic theology; it appears that he had a scholarship to study there. In the Golestan, he tells us that he
[4]
studied under the scholar Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (presumably the younger of two scholars of that name, who died in 1238).

In the Bustan and Golestan Saadi tells many colourful anecdotes of his travels, although some of these, such as his supposed visit to
the remote eastern city of Kashgar in 1213, may be fictional.[5] The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of
Khwarezm and Iran led him to wander for thirty years abroad through Anatolia (where he visited the Port of Adana and near Konya
met ghazi landlords), Syria (where he mentions the famine in Damascus), Egypt (where he describes its music, bazaars, clerics and
elites), and Iraq (where he visits the port of Basra and the Tigris river). In his writings he mentions the qadis, muftis of Al-Azhar, the
grand bazaar, music and art. At Halab, Saadi joins a group of Sufis who had fought arduous battles against the Crusaders. Saadi was
captured by Crusaders at Acre where he spent seven years as a slave digging trenches outside its fortress. He was later released after
the Mamluks paid ransom for Muslim prisoners being held in Crusader dungeons.

Saadi visited Jerusalem and then set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.[6] It is believed that he may have also visited Oman
and other lands in the south of theArabian Peninsula.

Because of the Mongol invasions he was forced to live in desolate areas and met caravans fearing for their lives on once-lively silk
trade routes. Saadi lived in isolated refugee camps where he met bandits, Imams, men who formerly owned great wealth or
commanded armies, intellectuals, and ordinary people. While Mongol and European sources (such as Marco Polo) gravitated to the
potentates and courtly life of Ilkhanate rule, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the war-torn region. He sat in remote tea
houses 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, and learning, honing his sermons to reflect the wisdom
and foibles of his people. Saadi's works reflect upon the lives of ordinary Iranians suffering displacement, agony and conflict during
the turbulent times of the Mongol invasion.

Saadi mentions honey-gatherers inAzarbaijan, fearful of Mongol plunder. He finally

returns to Persia where he meets his childhood companions in Isfahan and other
cities. At Khorasan Saadi befriends a Turkic Emir named Tughral. Saadi joins him
and his men on their journey to Sindh where he meets Pir Puttur, a follower of the
Persian Sufi grand master Shaikh Usman Marvandvi (11171274).[7]

He also refers in his writings about his travels with a Turkic Amir named Tughral in
Sindh (Pakistan across the Indus and Thar), India (especially Somnath, where he
encounters Brahmans), and Central Asia (where he meets the survivors of the
Mongol invasion in Khwarezm). Tughral hires Hindu sentinels. Tughral later enters
Saadi Shirazi is welcomed by a youth
service of the wealthy Delhi Sultanate, and Saadi is invited to Delhi and later visits from Kashgar during a forum in
the Vizier of Gujarat. During his stay in Gujarat, Saadi learns more about the Hindus Bukhara.
and visits the large temple of Somnath, from which he flees due to an unpleasant
encounter with the Brahmans. Katouzian calls this story "almost certainly
fictitious".[8]

Saadi came back to Shiraz before 1257 CE / 655 AH (the year he finished composition of his Bustan). Saadi mourned in his poetry
the fall of Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's destruction by Mongol invaders led byHulagu in February 1258.

When he reappeared in his native Shiraz, he might have been in his late forties. Shiraz, under Atabak Abubakr ibn Sa'd ibn Zangi
(123160), the Salghurid ruler of Fars, was enjoying an era of relative tranquility. Saadi was not only welcomed to the city but was
shown great respect by the ruler and held to be among the greats of the province. Some scholars believe that Saadi took his nom de
plume (in Persian takhallos) from the name of Abubakr's son, Sa'd, to whom he dedicated the Golestan; however, Katouzian argues
that it is likely that Saadi had already taken the name from Abubakr's father Sa'd ibn Zangi (d. 1226).[9] Some of Saadi's most famous
panegyrics were composed as a gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed at the beginning of his Bustan. The
remainder of Saadi's life seems to have been spent in Shiraz.

[4]
The traditional date for Saadi's death is between 1291 and 1294.

Works

Bustan and Gulistan

Sa'di's best known works are Bustan (The Orchard) completed in 1257 and Gulistan
(The Rose Garden) competed in 1258.[10] Bustan is entirely in verse (epic metre). It
consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims
(justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) and reflections on the behavior 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
which contain aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections, demonstrating Saadi's
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.[10]

Regarding the importance ofprofessions Saadi writes:

O darlings of your fathers, learn the trade because

property and riches of the world are not to be relied
upon; also silver and gold are an occasion of danger
because either a thief may steal them at once or the
owner spend them gradually; but a profession is a living
fountain and permanent wealth; and although a The first page of Bustan, from a
professional man may lose riches, it does not matter Mughal manuscript.
because a profession is itself wealth and wherever you
go you will enjoy respect and sit on high places,
whereas those who have no trade will glean crumbs and see hardships.

Saadi is also remembered as a panegyrist and lyricist, the author of a number of odes portraying human experience, and also of
particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are found in Ghazaliyat
(Lyrics) and his odes in Qasa'id (Odes). He is also known for a number of works in Arabic.

[11]
In the Bustan, Saadi writes of a man who relates his time in battle with the Mongols:

In Isfahan I had a friend who was warlike, spirited, and shrewd....after long I met him: "O tiger-seizer!" I exclaimed,
"what has made thee decrepit like an old fox?"

He laughed and said: "Since the days of war against the Mongols, I have expelled the thoughts of fighting from my head.
Then did I see the earth arrayed with spears like a forest of reeds. I raised like smoke the dust of conflict; but when
Fortune does not favour, of what avail is fury? I am one who, in combat, could take with a spear a ring from the palm of
the hand; but, as my star did not befriend me, they encircled me as with a ring. I seized the opportunity of flight, for only
a fool strives with Fate. How could my helmet and cuirass aid me when my bright star favoured me not? When the key of
victory is not in the hand, no one can break open the door of conquest with his arms.

The enemy were a pack of leopards, and as strong as elephants. The heads of the heroes were encased in iron, as were
also the hoofs of the horses. We urged on our Arab steeds like a cloud, and when the two armies encountered each other
thou wouldst have said they had struck the sky down to the earth. From the raining of arrows, that descended like hail, the
storm of death arose in every corner. Not one of our troops came out of the battle but his cuirass was soaked with blood.
Not that our swords were bluntit was the vengeance of stars of ill fortune. Overpowered, we surrendered, like a fish
which, though protected by scales, is caught by the hook in the bait. Since Fortune averted her face, useless was our
shield against the arrows of Fate.

Other works
In addition to the Bustan and Gulistan, Saadi also wrote four books of love poems (ghazals), and number of longer mono-rhyme
poems (qasidas) in both Persian and Arabic. There are also quatrains and short pieces, and some lesser works in prose and poetry.[12]
.[13]
Together with Rumi and Hafez, he is considered one of the three greatest ghazal-writers of Persian poetry

Bani Adam
Saadi is well known for his aphorisms, the most famous of which, Bani Adam, is
part of the Gulistan. In a delicate way it calls for breaking down all barriers between
human beings:[14][15]

ban 'dam a'z-ye yek peykar-and

ke dar 'farn-a ze yek gowhar-and
o 'ozv be dard varad rzgr
degar 'ozvh-r na-mnad qarr
to k-az mehnat- dgarn bqam-
na-yad ke nm-at nahand dam A copy of Saadi Shirazi's works by
the Bosniak scholar Safvet beg
This translation is by H. Vahid Dastjerdi:[16] Baagi (18701934)

Adam's sons are body limbs, to say;

For they're created of the same clay.
Should one organ be troubled by pain,
Others would suffer severe strain.
Thou, careless of people's suffering,
Deserve not the name, "human being".

This one by Iraj Bashiri:[17]

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.

And by Richard Jeffrey Newman:[18]

All men and women are to each other

the limbs of a single body, each of us drawn
from lifes shimmering essence, Gods perfect pearl;
and when this life we share wounds one of us,
 all share the hurt as if it were our own.
You, who will not feel anothers pain,
you forfeit the right to be called human.

The translations above are attempts to preserve the rhyme scheme of the original while translating into English, but may distort the
meaning. Moreover, Richard Jeffrey Newman's translation is based on an erroneous reading of the last two words of the first
hemistich; that is, reading as . What follows is an attempt at a more literal translation of the original Persian:

"Humans (lit., 'children of Adam') are the limbs of one/the same body
,
and are from the same essence in their creation.
When the conditions of the time hurt one of these parts,
other parts will suffer from discomfort/restlessness, as well.
If you are indifferent about the misery of others,
it is not deserving to call you a human being."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Tehran: "[...] At the entrance of the United Nations there is a magnificent carpet I think the
largest carpet the United Nations has that adorns the wall of the United Nations, a gift from the people of Iran. Alongside it are the
wonderful words of that great Persian poet, Saadi":

"All human beings are members of one frame,

Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain
The other limbs at rest cannot remain.
If thou feel not for others misery
A human being is no name for thee. [...][19]

These verses were inspired by a Hadith, or saying, of the Prophet Mohammed in which he says: The example of the believers
(Muslims) in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts
with sleeplessness and fever.[20]

Legacy and poetic style

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 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 ofsynonymy, homophony, and oxymoron buttressed by internalrhythm and external rhyme.

Chief among these works is Goethe's West-Oestlicher Divan. Andre du Ryer was the first European to present Saadi to the West, by
means of a partial French translation of Gulistan in 1634. Adam Olearius followed soon with a complete translation of theBustan and
the Gulistan into German in 1654.

In his Lectures on Aesthetics,Hegel wrote (on the Arts translated by Henry Paolucci, 2001, p. 155157):
 Pantheistic poetry has had, it must be said, a higher and freer development in the Islamic world, especially among the
Persians ... The full flowering of Persian poetry comes at the height of its complete transformation in speech and national
character, through Mohammedanism ... In later times, poetry of this order [Ferdowsi's epic poetry] had a sequel in love
epics of extraordinary tenderness and sweetness; but there followed also a turn toward the didactic, where, with a rich
experience of life, the far-traveled Saadi was master before it submerged itself in the depths of the pantheistic mysticism
taught and recommended in the extraordinary tales and legendary narrations of the great Jalal-ed-Din Rumi.

Alexander Pushkin, one of Russia's most celebrated poets, quotes Saadi in his work Eugene Onegin, "as Saadi sang in earlier ages,
'some are far distant, some are dead'."[21] Gulistan was an influence on the fables of Jean de La Fontaine.[10] Benjamin Franklin also
in one of his works, DLXXXVIIIA parable on Persecution, quotes one of Bustan of Saadi's parable, apparently without knowing the
source.[22] Ralph Waldo Emerson was also interested in Sadi's writings, contributing to some translated editions himself. Emerson,
[23]
who read Saadi only in translation, compared his writing to theBible in terms of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative.

The French physicist Nicolas Lonard Sadi Carnot's third given name is from Saadi's name. It was chosen by his father, Lazare
Carnot.

U.S. President Barack Obama quoted the first two lines of this poem in his New Year's greeting to the people of Iran on March 20,
2009, "But let us remember the words that were written by the poet Saadi, so many years ago: 'The children of Adam are limbs to
each other, having been created of one essence.'"[24]

Mausoleum

Saadi's mausoleum in Mosaic in his mausoleum Tomb of Saadi in his Tomb of Sheikh Saadi by
Shiraz, Iran mausoleum Eugne Flandin, 1851

Tomb of Saadi by Pascal Tomb of Saadi from sky, Tomb of Saadi's

Coste, 1867 April 20, 2014 entrance, April 20, 2014

See also
List of Persian poets and authors
Persian literature in the West
Islamic scholars
Notes
1. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sadi-sirazi
2. The City Kathryn Hinds Google Books(https://books.google.com/books?id=el83fRv4GakC&pg=P
A75&dq=magic
+carpet+one+thousand+and+one+night&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8S9XT_HCMsXK0QWLpcHLDQ&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBQ#v
=snippet&q=Saadi%20Shirazi&f=false). Books.google.com.pk. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
3. Katouzian, Sa'di, p. 11
4. Katouzian, Sa'di, p. 10.
5. Katouzian, Sa'di, pp. 10, 15.
6. "The Bustan of Sadi: Chapter III. Concerning Love"(http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bus/bus07.htm). Sacred-
texts.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
7. Personal Observations on Sindh: The Manners and Customs of Its Inhabitants ... Thomas Postans Google
Boeken (https://books.google.com/books?id=Fl6qYIcln8MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Debal&as_brr=1&source=gbs_
book_similarbooks#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
8. Katouzian, Saidi, p. 16.
9. Katouzian Sa'di, p. 13.
10. "Sa'di's "Gulistan" " (http://www.wdl.org/en/item/6829/). World Digital Library. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
11. "The Bustan of Sadi: Chapter V. Concerning Resignation" (http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/bus/bus09.htm). Sacred-
texts.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
12. Katouzian, Sa'di, pp. 25, 33-35.
13. Katouzian Sa'di, p. 33.
14. From Gulistan Saadi. chapter 1, story 10
15. " ( " http://www.dibache.com/text.asp?cat=3&id=1338). Dibache.com.
Retrieved 2012-08-13.
16. [Vahid Dastjerdi, H. 2006, East of Sophia (Mashriq-e-Ma'rifat). Qom: Ansariyan.]
17. "Iraj Bashiri's A Brief Note on the Life of Shaykh Muslih al-Din Sa'di Shirazi"
(http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Po
ets/Sadi.html). Angelfire.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
18. Selections from Saadi's Gulisan(http://richardjnewman.com/my-books/selections-from-saadis-gulistan/)
, translated
by Richard Jeffrey Newman (Global ScholarlyPublications 2004)
19. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Tehran (Iran), 30 August 2012 (https://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/
statments_full.asp?statID=1638#.VYlJWi5cpWg)
20. [Sahih Bukhari 5665, Sahih Muslim 2586]
21. Full text of Eugene Onegin (http://lib.ru/LITRA/PUSHKIN/ENGLISH/onegin_j.txt)is available here.
22. Yohannan, J. D. Persian Poetry in England and America: A T
wo Hundred Year History . 1977. New York: Caravan
Books. ISBN 978-0882060064 pp. XXV-XXVI
23. Milani, A. Lost Wisdom. 2004. Washington. ISBN 0-934211-90-6 p. 39
24. "US President Obama's New Year's greeting to the people of Iran, March, 2009"(https://web.archive.org/web/20090
328151311/http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/VIDEOTAPED-REMARKS-BY-THE-PRESIDENT-IN-CELEB
RATION-OF-NOWRUZ/). web.archive.org. Archived fromthe original (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/VI
DEOTAPED-REMARKS-BY-THE-PRESIDENT-IN-CELEBRATION-OF-NOWRUZ/) on March 28, 2009. Retrieved
2013-08-09.

References
W. M. Thackston. The Gulistan of Sa'di. (Bilingual. English translation, Persian text on facing page). 2008.ISBN 978-
1-58814-058-6
Homa Katouzian, Sa'di, the Poet of Life, Love and Compassion(A comprehensive study of Sa'di and his works).
2006. ISBN 1-85168-473-5
G. M. Wikens, The Bustan of Sheikh Moslehedin Saadi Shirarzi(English translation and the Persian original). 1985.
Iranian National Commission for Unesco, No. 46
E. G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998.
ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
 ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968 OCLC 460598. ISBN 90-277-0143-1
Persian Language & Literature: Saadi Shirazi
R. M. Chopra, "Great Poets of Classical Persian", Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, 2014,ISBN
( 978-81-89140-75-5)

External links
Quotations related to Saadi at Wikiquote
Works written by or aboutSaadi at Wikisource
Media related to Sa'di at Wikimedia Commons
Works by or about Saadi Shiraziat Internet Archive
Works by Saadi Shirazi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
The Bustan of Saadi 1911 English edition by A. Hart Edwards
The Gulistan of Sa'di
The Bustan of Saadi, English translation, 74 p., Iran Chamber
Pictures of Sa'di's Tomb in Shiraz
(in English) (in Arabic) "Verses in Persian and Chaghatay"featuring work by Sa'di, c. 1600
(in English) (in Arabic) Ghazal by Sa'di
Photograph of the carpet containing Saadi'sBani Adam presented to the United Nations[1]
Bani Adam recited in Persian by Amir H. Ghaseminejad
Introduction to the Golestan recited in Persian by Hamidreza Mohammadi

1. cf. Payvand News Aug. 24, 2005(http://www.payvand.com/news/05/aug/1234.html)

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