Classic Persian Poets:

Sheikh Mosleh-ed-din Sadi

By Manu Malek
21 January 2009

Sadi ( 1210 1292 AD, 588 670 Lunar AH) is one of the
greatest figures in classic Persian literature. He is recognized not only for the
quality of his writing, but also for the depth of his social thought. He is
respectfully referred to as Sheikh-e-Ajal ( , The Greater Master). He is also
known as Afsah-ol-Motakallemn ( , The More Eloquent Speaker) for the
simplicity and yet the depth of his works. This article describes Sadis life and
works.



Saadi Sadi's mausoleum in Shirz, Iran

Sadis life
Sadi was born in Shirz and is buried there. He left Shirz when he was fourteen
years old for Baghdd to study Arabic literature and Islamic sciences at the
Nezmiyyeh () School there. The unsettled conditions following the Mongol
invasion of Iran, as well as his love for travel, led him to wander through the
Middle East, North Africa, and India for more than 20 years. In his works he
refers to having been enslaved by the Franks and forced to work in the trenches
of Tripoli for some time. During his travels he performed preaching, advising ,
and learning.

When he returned to Shirz in 1246 AD, he was an elderly man. Shirz at that
time was under the rule of Abbakr-ebn-Sad-ebn-Zangi and enjoyed relative
tranquility. Sadi was welcomed back to Shirz and the ruler showed him
kindness and respect. In appreciation, Sadi took his nom de plume from the
name of the ruler and dedicated two of his works, Golestn and Boostn, to him
in gratitude.

He may have spent the rest of his life in Shirz. But at times he seemed to still
have a yearning for Baghdd:

...


Although well-versed in philosophy, exegesis, jurisprudence, and religious
discourse, he declined invitations to become a judge or officiant.

Sadis works
Sadis works are treasures of wisdom and guidelines for ethical living. His main
works are collected in three books: Golestn (, the Rose Garden), Boostn
(, the Orchard), and Ghazaliyt ( , the Lyrics). The first two works
represent wisdom, ethics, and advice. Ghazaliyt is a collection of sublime odes
dealing with human experiences and emotions like love, friendship, separation,
and patience.

Golestn, completed in 1258 AD (656 Lunar AH , is in prose interspersed with
verses of poetry and contains stories of his travels and observations, reflecting on
human life, ethics, prejudice, kindness, hope, and struggle for improvement.
Sadis prose style, described as simple but difficult to imitate ( ) flows
quite naturally and effortlessly. It is considered by Persian scholar M. A. Forooghi
as the most beautiful prose work in Persian. Golestn contains eight chapters
with the following titles:

1. On the Character of Kings ( )
2. On the Morals of Dervishes ( )
3. On the Virtue of Contentment ( )
4. On the Advantages of Silence ( )
5. On Love and Youth ( )
6. On Weakness and Old Age ( )
7. On the Effect of Education ( )
8. On the Manners of Association ( )

Boostn, completed in 1257 AD, is a book of poems of about 5000 masnavi (,
two-part poems) style, in the same prosody ( ) as Ferdowsis
Shhnmeh. It contains 159 stories illustrating good human virtues like justice,
modesty, and contentment. Boostn has ten chapters with the following titles:

1. On Justice, Prudence, and Counsel ( )
2. On Beneficence ( )
3. On Love, Intoxication, and Passion ( )
4. On Humility ( )
5. On Consent ( )
6. On Contentment ( )
7. On the World of Education ( )
8. On Gratitude for Wel-being ( )
9. On Repentance and the Virtuous Path ( )
10. On Prayer and Conclusion of the Book ( )

In the introduction section of Boostn he says:









Sadis Ghazaliyt are divided into several sections: Tayyebt, Badyee,
Khavteem, and Molammat ( ). They contain about 600 odes
with about 10 lines per ode. Sadi has also written about 150 quatrains (). He
has also written a number of works in Arabic.

In his travels, Sadi mingled with ordinary people and exchanged views with
merchants, farmers, preachers, wayfarers, thieves, and Sufi mendicants. In his
works he narrates stories about places and events during his travels.

Translation of Sadis works
Andre du Ryer was the first European to introduce Sadi to the West via a partial
French translation of Golestn in 1634 AD (LEmprise des Roses). A year later,
this French version was translated into German by Johann Friedrich Ochsenbach
(Tubingen, 1635). A Latin translation of Golestn together with the Persian text
by George Gentz was published n Amsterdam in 1651. Adam Olearius (born
Adam Oelschlager), a German diplomat who had visited Iran, translated both
Golestn and Boostn into German (1654 and 1696). Although free style
translations, these works were widely read by European intellectuals, including
the German poet Goethe who used some of Sadis poems in his work West
Ostlicher Diwan. About 150 years later, Karl Heinrich Graf published an excellent
German translations of both Golestn and Boostn (1845 and 1850). These two
Sadis works were also translated into French by N. Semelet (1834 and 1880).
The first English translation of Golestn appeared in the late 18
th
century by
Stephen Sullivan (1774, selections), and later by other scholars, notably, James
Dumoulin (1807), Francis Gladwain (1808), James Ross (1823), S. Lee (1827),
Edward B. Eastwick (1852), John T. Platts (1867), E.H. Whinfield (1880), Edward
Rehatsek (1888), Edwin Arnold (1899, the first four chapters), L. Cranmer-Byng
(1905), Celwyn E. Hampton (1913), and Arthur John Arberry (1945, the first two
chapters). Ralph Waldo Emerson was an avid fan of Sadi's writings, contributing
to some translated editions himself.
Sadis other works have received relatively less attention. Lucas Whit King was
the first one to translate hundreds of Sadis ghazals into English (The Odes of
Sadi, two volumes, 1925; and an additional volume, 1926). Sadis poems and
Parables have also been included in many English anthologies of Persian poetry
Published during the 19
th
and 20
th
centuries. Translations of Sadis works are
also available in many languages, both European (Dutch, Italian, Russian, Polish,
Romanian, ...) and Eastern (Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Bengali, ).
Honoring Sadi
The 700
th
year of completing Golestn was celebrated in 1933 in Tehran with the
presence of many writers, poets, and government dignitaries. During this
gathering many articles and poems about Sadis contributions to Persian
literature and culture were presented. Of note was a poetic piece by M. T. Bahr
( ), a master Persian poet of 20
th
century, honoring Sadi. In this
piece, Bahr inserts two verses of his for each verse of a Sadis lyric ode ( ),
maintaining prosody and rhyme with the first hemistich. Here are the first and
last three verses:



" "



"

April 21 is designated as Sadis commemoration day in the Persian calendar. This
day has been celebrated every year since 1996 with the presence of many
intellectuals, writers, and poets in Shirz. It corresponds to the first day of
Ordibehesht, the second month in the Persian calendar, when Sadi decided to
embark on writing Golestn. He says in the introduction section of Golestn:

...





...


.




Related web sites and references:
Golestan-e Saadi, Borookhim Publications, Tehran, 1316
Boostan-e Saadi, Amir Kabir Publications, Tehran, 1333
Ghazaliat-e Saadi, Ghaghnoos Publications, Tehran, 1384
M. T. Bahr, Who is Sadi (article in Persian), in Gozide-ye Athar e Bahar (
), Selected, Introduced and Annotated by H. Ahmadi Givi, Ghatre Publishing,
Tehran, 1378
The Golestan of Saadi, English translation, 213 p., Iran Chamber Society:
http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/saadi/books/golestan_saadi.pdf
The Bostan of Saadi, English translation, 74 p., Iran Chamber Society:
http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/saadi/books/bostan_saadi.pdf
The Gulistan of Sa'di http://classics.mit.edu/Sadi/gulistan.html
Saadis biography: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Poets/Sadi.html