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Saadi Shirazi

Saadi Shīrāzī[2] (Persian: ابومحمّد مصلح‌الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (/ˈsɑːdi/;[3] Persian: سعدی, romanizedSaʿdī, IPA: [sæʔˈdiː]), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (سعدی شیرازی, Saʿdī Shīrāzī; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a Persian poet and prose writer[1][4] of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

Saadi Shirazi
Saadi (right) in a rose garden, from a Mughal manuscript of his work Gulistan, c. 1645.
Born1210[1]
Died1291 or 1292 (aged 80 to 82)[1]
SchoolPersian poetry, Persian literature
Main interests
Poetry, mysticism, logic, ethics, Sufism

Saadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" (استاد سخن ostâd-e soxan) or simply "Master" (استاد ostâd) among Persian scholars. He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well.[1] Bustan has been ranked as one of the 100 greatest books of all time by The Guardian.[5]

Biography

Saadi was born in Shiraz, Iran, according to some, shortly after 1200, according to others sometime between 1213 and 1219.[6] In the Golestan, composed in 1258, he says in lines evidently addressed to himself, "O you who have lived fifty years and are still asleep"; another piece of evidence is that in one of his qasida poems he writes that he left home for foreign lands when the Mongols came to his homeland Fars, an event which occurred in 1225.[7] Saadi was a Sunni Muslim.[8]

Saadi Shirazi whose family were from religious scholars, lost his father when he was a child. Then he was under the guardianship of his maternal grandmother.[9] 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, Persian literature, and Islamic theology; it appears that he had a scholarship to study there. In the Golestan, he tells us that he studied under the scholar Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (presumably the younger of two scholars of that name, who died in 1238).[10]

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.[11] 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.[12] It is believed that he may have also visited Oman and other lands in the south of the Arabian 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 Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara.

Saadi mentions honey-gatherers in Azarbaijan, 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 (1117–1274).[13]

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 service of the wealthy Delhi Sultanate, and Saadi is invited to Delhi and later visits the Vizier of Gujarat. During his stay in Gujarat, Saadi learns more about the Hindus 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".[14]

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 by Hulagu 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 (1231–60), 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).[15] 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.

The traditional date for Saadi's death is between 1291 and 1294.[10]

Works

Bustan and Gulistan

 
The first page of Bustan, from a Mughal manuscript.
 
Gulistan Saadi (Calligraphy of Golestan Saadi in Nastaliq script)

Sa'di's best known works are Bustan (The Orchard) completed in 1257 and Gulistan (The Rose Garden) completed in 1258.[16] 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.[16]

Regarding the importance of professions Saadi writes:[17]

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 professional man may lose riches, it does not matter 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.

In the Bustan, Saadi writes of a man who relates his time in battle with the Mongols:[18]

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 blunt—it 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.[19] Together with Rumi and Hafez, he is considered one of the three greatest ghazal-writers of Persian poetry.[20]

Bani Adam

 
A copy of Saadi Shirazi's works by the Bosniak scholar Safvet beg Bašagić (1870–1934)

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:[21][22]

The original Persian text is as follows:

بنى آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوى بدرد آورَد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نمانَد قرار
تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی
نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی
banī ādam a'zā-ye yekdīgar-and
ke dar āfarīn-aš ze yek gowhar-and
čo 'ozvī be dard āvarad rūzgār
degar 'ozvhā-rā na-mānad qarār
to k-az mehnat-ē dīgarān bīqam-ī
na-šāyad ke nām-at nahand ādamī

The literal translation of the above is as follows:

"The children of Adam are the members of each other,
who are in their creation from the same essence.
When day and age hurt one of these members,
other members will be left (with) no serenity.
If you are unsympathetic to the misery of others,
it is not right that they should call you a human being."

The above version with yekdīgar "one another" is the usual one quoted in Iran (for example, in the well-known edition of Mohammad Ali Foroughi, on the carpet installed in the United Nations building in New York in 2005,[23][24] on the Iranian (500 rials) coin since 1387 Solar Hijri calendar (i.e. in 2008),[25] and on the back of the 100,000-rial banknote issued in 2010); according to the scholar Habib Yaghmai is also the only version found in the earliest manuscripts, which date to within 50 years of the writing of the Golestan.[26] Some books, however, print a variation banī ādam a'zā-ye yek peykar-and ("The sons of Adam are members of one body"), and this version, which accords more closely with the hadith quoted below, is followed by most English translations.

The following translation is by H. Vahid Dastjerdi:[27]

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 is a verse translation by Ali Salami:

Human beings are limbs of one body indeed;
For, they’re created of the same soul and seed.
When one limb is afflicted with pain,
Other limbs will feel the bane.
He who has no sympathy for human suffering,
Is not worthy of being called a human being.

And by Richard Jeffrey Newman:[28]

All men and women are to each other
the limbs of a single body, each of us drawn
from life’s shimmering essence, God’s 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 another’s pain,
you forfeit the right to be called human.

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, Sa’adi":

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 other’s misery
A human being is no name for thee. [...][29][30]

According to the former Iranian Foreign Minister and Envoy to the United Nations, Mohammad Ali Zarif, this carpet, installed in 2005, actually hangs not in the entrance but in a meeting room inside the United Nations building in New York.[31]

Bani Adam was used by the British rock band Coldplay in their song بنی آدم, with the title Bani Adam written in Persian script. The song is featured on their 2019 album Everyday Life.

This version was delivered by Bowinn Ma, Minister of State for Infrastructure, British Columbia, Canada, in the BC Parliament.

Human beings are members of a whole
In creation, of one essence and soul
If one member is inflicted with pain
Other members, uneasy will remain
If you have no sympathy for human pain
The name of human you cannot retain.


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 of synonymy, homophony, and oxymoron buttressed by internal rhythm 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 the Bustan and the Gulistan into German in 1654.

In his Lectures on Aesthetics, Hegel wrote (on the Arts translated by Henry Paolucci, 2001, p. 155–157):

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'."[32] Gulistan was an influence on the fables of Jean de La Fontaine.[16] Benjamin Franklin in one of his works, DLXXXVIII A Parable on Persecution, quotes one of Bustan of Saadi's parable, apparently without knowing the source.[33] Ralph Waldo Emerson was also interested in Sadi's writings, contributing to some translated editions himself. Emerson, who read Saadi only in translation, compared his writing to the Bible in terms of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative.[34]

The French physicist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot's third given name is from Saadi's name. It was chosen by his father because of his great interest toward Saadi and his poems, Lazare Carnot.

Voltaire was very thrilled with his works especially Gulistan, even he enjoyed being called "Saadi" in his friends' circle.

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.'"[35]

In 1976, a crater on Mercury was named in his honor.[36]

National commemoration of ‘Saadi Day’

 
Saadi-Shirazi's commemoration day

Annually, on April 21 (Apr. 20 in leap years) a crowd of foreign tourists and Iranians gather at Saadi's tomb in order to mark the day.[37][38]

This commemoration day[39][40] is held on the 1st of Ordibehesht, the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar (see Iranian calendar),[41][42][43] the day on which Saadi states that he finished the Golestan in 1256.

Mausoleum

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "Encyclopedia Iranica". SAʿDI, Abu Moḥammad Mošarref-al-Din Moṣleḥ b. ʿAbd-Allāh b. Mošarref Širāzi, Persian poet and prose writer (b. Shiraz, ca. 1210; d. Shiraz, d. 1291 or 1292), widely recognized as one of the greatest masters of the classical literary tradition.
  2. ^ Hinds, Kathryn (2008). The City. ISBN 9780761430896. Retrieved 2012-08-13 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Saadi". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.[dead link]
  4. ^ "Encyclopaedia Britannica". Saʿdī, also spelled Saadi, byname of Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muṣlih al-Dīn, (born c. 1213, Shīrāz, Iran—died Dec. 9, 1291, Shīrāz), Persian poet, one of the greatest figures in classical Persian literature.
  5. ^ "The top 100 books of all time". TheGuardian.com. 8 May 2002.
  6. ^ J.A. Boyle (1977), "Review of: Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned: The Būstān of Sa'dī by Sa'dī, by G. M. Wickens". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 40, No. 1. Boyle writes: "It is not clear on what authority Wickens states 'with reasonable confidence' that Sa'di was born c. 1200. In an article published as long ago as 1937, the late Abbas Eghbal demonstrated that the poet's birth must fall somewhere between 610/1213-14 and 615/1218-19. See the Sa'dī-nāma ed. Ḥabīb Yaghma'ī, Tehran 1316/1937-8, 627-45, (especially 640-10)."
  7. ^ Katouzian, Sa'di, p. 11
  8. ^ Leadership through the Classics: Learning Management and Leadership from Ancient East and West Philosophy. Springer. 2014. p. 194. ISBN 978-3-642-32445-1. Retrieved 2015-03-20.
  9. ^ Muslih al-Dīn Saadi Shirazi rasekhoon.net
  10. ^ a b Katouzian, Sa'di, p. 10.
  11. ^ Katouzian, Sa'di, pp. 10, 15.
  12. ^ "The Bustan of Sadi: Chapter III. Concerning Love". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  13. ^ Postans, Thomas (1843). Personal Observations on Sindh: The Manners and Customs of Its Inhabitants ... – Thomas Postans – Google Boeken. ISBN 9788120617186. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  14. ^ Katouzian, Saidi, p. 16.
  15. ^ Katouzian Sa'di, p. 13.
  16. ^ a b c "Sa'di's "Gulistan"". World Digital Library. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  17. ^ "The Gulistan of Sadi: Chapter VII. On The Effects Of Education, Story 2". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  18. ^ "The Bustan of Sadi: Chapter V. Concerning Resignation". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  19. ^ Katouzian, Sa'di, pp. 25, 33-35.
  20. ^ Katouzian Sa'di, p. 33.
  21. ^ From Gulistan Saadi. chapter 1, story 10
  22. ^ "گلستان سعدی، باب اول، تصحیح محمدعلی فروغی". Dibache.com. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  23. ^ "Zarif Narrates Story of Iranian Carpet Hung up on UN’s Wall". Iran Front Page online, April 19, 2017.
  24. ^ United Nations press release.
  25. ^ 500 rials cbi.ir Retrieved 5 May 2020
  26. ^ Mehr News Agency article 7 Tir 1389 (= 22 June 2010), quoted in Persian Wikipedia. The webpage appears to be no longer available.
  27. ^ [Vahid Dastjerdi, H. 2006, East of Sophia (Mashriq-e-Ma'rifat). Qom: Ansariyan.]
  28. ^ Selections from Saadi's Gulisan, translated by Richard Jeffrey Newman (Global Scholarly Publications 2004)
  29. ^ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Tehran (Iran), 30 August 2012
  30. ^ The English version is from the 2nd edition (1880) of the translation of the Gulistan by Edward Eastwick.
  31. ^ Iran Front Page article, April 19, 2017.
  32. ^ Full text of Eugene Onegin is available here.
  33. ^ Yohannan, J. D. Persian Poetry in England and America: A Two Hundred Year History . 1977. New York: Caravan Books. ISBN 978-0882060064 pp. XXV-XXVI
  34. ^ Milani, A. Lost Wisdom. 2004. Washington. ISBN 0-934211-90-6 p. 39
  35. ^ "US President Obama's New Year's greeting to the people of Iran, March, 2009". whitehouse.gov. 20 March 2009. Retrieved 2013-08-09 – via National Archives.
  36. ^ "Sadī". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  37. ^ National commemoration of Saadi Day isna.ir
  38. ^ Empty mausoleum of Saadi Shiraz amid COVID-19 pandemic mehrnews.com
  39. ^ Saadi commemoration ceremony in Bandar Abbas yjc.ir
  40. ^ 1 Ordibehesht, Saadi Commemoration Day bultannews.com
  41. ^ Saadi Commemoration Day isna.ir
  42. ^ Saadi Shirazi Commemoration Day hawzah.net
  43. ^ Commemoration of Saadi yjc.ir

References

  • Browne, E.G. (1906, reprinted 1956). Literary History of Persia, volume 2: From Firdawsí to Sa'dí. Cambridge University Press.
  • Chopra, R.M., "Great Poets of Classical Persian", Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, 2014, (ISBN 978-81-89140-75-5)
  • Homerin, Th. Emil (1983). "Sa'di's Somnatiyah". Iranian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1/2 (Winter - Spring, 1983), pp. 31–50.
  • Ingenito, Domenico (2020). Beholding Beauty: Sa'di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry. Brill.
  • Katouzian, Homa (2006). Sa'di, the Poet of Life, Love and Compassion (A comprehensive study of Sa'di and his works). 2006. ISBN 1-85168-473-5
  • Southgate, Minoo S. (1984). "Men, Women, and Boys: Love and Sex in the Works of Sa'di". Iranian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 413–452.
  • Wickens, G.M. (1985), The Bustan of Sheikh Moslehedin Saadi Shirazi (English translation and the Persian original). 1985. Iranian National Commission for Unesco, No. 46
  • Rypka, Jan (1968). History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. OCLC 460598. ISBN 90-277-0143-1
  • Thackston, W. M. (2008). The Gulistan of Sa'di. (Bilingual. English translation, Persian text on facing page). ISBN 978-1-58814-058-6

Further reading

  • Ingenito, Domenico (2020). Beholding Beauty: Sa'di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry. Brill.
  • J.N. Mattock, "The Early History of the Maqama," "Journal of Arabic Literature", Vol. 25, 1989, pp 1–18

External links

  •   Quotations related to Saadi at Wikiquote
  •   Works by or about Saadi at Wikisource
  •   Media related to Sa'di at Wikimedia Commons
  • Iran Chamber Society information: Persian Language & Literature: Saadi Shirazi
  • Works by or about Saadi Shirazi at Internet Archive
  • Works by Saadi Shirazi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)   (in English)
  • 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 and Arabic) "Verses in Persian and Chaghatay" featuring work by Sa'di, c. 1600
  • (in English and Arabic) Ghazal by Sa'di
  • News story about United Nations "Bani Adam" carpet
  • Photograph of the carpet containing Saadi's Bani Adam presented to the United Nations
    • cf. Payvand News Aug. 24, 2005
  • Bani Adam recited in Persian by Amir H. Ghaseminejad
  • Introduction to the Golestan recited in Persian by Hamidreza Mohammadi

saadi, shirazi, saadi, shīrāzī, persian, ابومحم, مصلح, الدین, بن, عبدالله, شیرازی, better, known, name, saadi, ɑː, persian, سعدی, romanized, saʿdī, sæʔˈdiː, also, known, sadi, shiraz, سعدی, شیرازی, saʿdī, shīrāzī, born, 1210, died, 1291, 1292, persian, poet, p. Saadi Shirazi 2 Persian ابومحم د مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی better known by his pen name Saadi ˈ s ɑː d i 3 Persian سعدی romanized Saʿdi IPA saeʔˈdiː also known as Sadi of Shiraz سعدی شیرازی Saʿdi Shirazi born 1210 died 1291 or 1292 was a Persian poet and prose writer 1 4 of the medieval period He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts Saadi ShiraziSaadi right in a rose garden from a Mughal manuscript of his work Gulistan c 1645 Born1210 1 Shiraz Atabegs of FarsDied1291 or 1292 aged 80 to 82 1 Shiraz IlkhanateSchoolPersian poetry Persian literatureMain interestsPoetry mysticism logic ethics SufismSaadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition earning him the nickname The Master of Speech or The Wordsmith استاد سخن ostad e soxan or simply Master استاد ostad among Persian scholars He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well 1 Bustan has been ranked as one of the 100 greatest books of all time by The Guardian 5 Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 2 1 Bustan and Gulistan 2 2 Other works 2 3 Bani Adam 3 Legacy and poetic style 4 National commemoration of Saadi Day 5 Mausoleum 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External linksBiography EditSaadi was born in Shiraz Iran according to some shortly after 1200 according to others sometime between 1213 and 1219 6 In the Golestan composed in 1258 he says in lines evidently addressed to himself O you who have lived fifty years and are still asleep another piece of evidence is that in one of his qasida poems he writes that he left home for foreign lands when the Mongols came to his homeland Fars an event which occurred in 1225 7 Saadi was a Sunni Muslim 8 Saadi Shirazi whose family were from religious scholars lost his father when he was a child Then he was under the guardianship of his maternal grandmother 9 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 Persian literature and Islamic theology it appears that he had a scholarship to study there In the Golestan he tells us that he studied under the scholar Abu l Faraj ibn al Jawzi presumably the younger of two scholars of that name who died in 1238 10 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 11 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 12 It is believed that he may have also visited Oman and other lands in the south of the Arabian 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 Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara Saadi mentions honey gatherers in Azarbaijan 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 1117 1274 13 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 service of the wealthy Delhi Sultanate and Saadi is invited to Delhi and later visits the Vizier of Gujarat During his stay in Gujarat Saadi learns more about the Hindus 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 14 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 by Hulagu 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 1231 60 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 15 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 The traditional date for Saadi s death is between 1291 and 1294 10 Works EditBustan and Gulistan Edit Main articles Bustan and Gulistan The first page of Bustan from a Mughal manuscript Gulistan Saadi Calligraphy of Golestan Saadi in Nastaliq script Sa di s best known works are Bustan The Orchard completed in 1257 and Gulistan The Rose Garden completed in 1258 16 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 16 Regarding the importance of professions Saadi writes 17 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 professional man may lose riches it does not matter 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 In the Bustan Saadi writes of a man who relates his time in battle with the Mongols 18 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 blunt it 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 Edit 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 19 Together with Rumi and Hafez he is considered one of the three greatest ghazal writers of Persian poetry 20 Bani Adam Edit Main article Bani Adam A copy of Saadi Shirazi s works by the Bosniak scholar Safvet beg Basagic 1870 1934 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 21 22 The original Persian text is as follows بنى آدم اعضای یکدیگرند که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند چو عضوى بدرد آور د روزگار دگر عضوها را نمان د قرار تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی bani adam a za ye yekdigar and ke dar afarin as ze yek gowhar and co ozvi be dard avarad ruzgar degar ozvha ra na manad qarar to k az mehnat e digaran biqam i na sayad ke nam at nahand adami dd The literal translation of the above is as follows The children of Adam are the members of each other who are in their creation from the same essence When day and age hurt one of these members other members will be left with no serenity If you are unsympathetic to the misery of others it is not right that they should call you a human being The above version with yekdigar one another is the usual one quoted in Iran for example in the well known edition of Mohammad Ali Foroughi on the carpet installed in the United Nations building in New York in 2005 23 24 on the Iranian 500 rials coin since 1387 Solar Hijri calendar i e in 2008 25 and on the back of the 100 000 rial banknote issued in 2010 according to the scholar Habib Yaghmai is also the only version found in the earliest manuscripts which date to within 50 years of the writing of the Golestan 26 Some books however print a variation bani adam a za ye yek peykar and The sons of Adam are members of one body and this version which accords more closely with the hadith quoted below is followed by most English translations The following translation is by H Vahid Dastjerdi 27 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 is a verse translation by Ali Salami Human beings are limbs of one body indeed For they re created of the same soul and seed When one limb is afflicted with pain Other limbs will feel the bane He who has no sympathy for human suffering Is not worthy of being called a human being And by Richard Jeffrey Newman 28 All men and women are to each otherthe limbs of a single body each of us drawnfrom life s shimmering essence God s 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 another s pain you forfeit the right to be called human 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 Sa adi All human beings are members of one frame Since all at first from the same essence came When time afflicts a limb with painThe other limbs at rest cannot remain If thou feel not for other s miseryA human being is no name for thee 29 30 According to the former Iranian Foreign Minister and Envoy to the United Nations Mohammad Ali Zarif this carpet installed in 2005 actually hangs not in the entrance but in a meeting room inside the United Nations building in New York 31 Bani Adam was used by the British rock band Coldplay in their song بنی آدم with the title Bani Adam written in Persian script The song is featured on their 2019 album Everyday Life This version was delivered by Bowinn Ma Minister of State for Infrastructure British Columbia Canada in the BC Parliament Human beings are members of a wholeIn creation of one essence and soulIf one member is inflicted with painOther members uneasy will remainIf you have no sympathy for human painThe name of human you cannot retain Legacy and poetic style EditSaadi 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 of synonymy homophony and oxymoron buttressed by internal rhythm 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 the Bustan and the Gulistan into German in 1654 In his Lectures on Aesthetics Hegel wrote on the Arts translated by Henry Paolucci 2001 p 155 157 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 32 Gulistan was an influence on the fables of Jean de La Fontaine 16 Benjamin Franklin in one of his works DLXXXVIII A Parable on Persecution quotes one of Bustan of Saadi s parable apparently without knowing the source 33 Ralph Waldo Emerson was also interested in Sadi s writings contributing to some translated editions himself Emerson who read Saadi only in translation compared his writing to the Bible in terms of its wisdom and the beauty of its narrative 34 The French physicist Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot s third given name is from Saadi s name It was chosen by his father because of his great interest toward Saadi and his poems Lazare Carnot Voltaire was very thrilled with his works especially Gulistan even he enjoyed being called Saadi in his friends circle 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 35 In 1976 a crater on Mercury was named in his honor 36 National commemoration of Saadi Day Edit Saadi Shirazi s commemoration day Annually on April 21 Apr 20 in leap years a crowd of foreign tourists and Iranians gather at Saadi s tomb in order to mark the day 37 38 This commemoration day 39 40 is held on the 1st of Ordibehesht the second month of the Solar Hijri calendar see Iranian calendar 41 42 43 the day on which Saadi states that he finished the Golestan in 1256 Mausoleum Edit Saadi s mausoleum in Shiraz Iran Mosaic in his mausoleum Tomb of Saadi in his mausoleum Tomb of Sheikh Saadi by Eugene Flandin 1851 Tomb of Saadi by Pascal Coste 1867 Tomb of Saadi from sky April 20 2014 Tomb of Saadi s entrance April 20 2014 The entrance part of Saadi s tomb Sep 18 2017 Inside tomb of Saadi Shirazi 18 December 2016See also Edit Poetry portal Iran portalList of Persian poets and authors Persian literature in the West Islamic scholars Tomb of Anarkali Noted Saadi researchers Mohammad Ali Foroughi Hossein Elahi Ghomshei Kavoos Hasanli Ziya MovahedNotes Edit a b c d Encyclopedia Iranica SAʿDI Abu Moḥammad Mosarref al Din Moṣleḥ b ʿAbd Allah b Mosarref Sirazi Persian poet and prose writer b Shiraz ca 1210 d Shiraz d 1291 or 1292 widely recognized as one of the greatest masters of the classical literary tradition Hinds Kathryn 2008 The City ISBN 9780761430896 Retrieved 2012 08 13 via Google Books Saadi Lexico UK English Dictionary Oxford University Press dead link Encyclopaedia Britannica Saʿdi also spelled Saadi byname of Musharrif al Din ibn Muṣlih al Din born c 1213 Shiraz Iran died Dec 9 1291 Shiraz Persian poet one of the greatest figures in classical Persian literature The top 100 books of all time TheGuardian com 8 May 2002 J A Boyle 1977 Review of Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned The Bustan of Sa di by Sa di by G M Wickens Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Vol 40 No 1 Boyle writes It is not clear on what authority Wickens states with reasonable confidence that Sa di was born c 1200 In an article published as long ago as 1937 the late Abbas Eghbal demonstrated that the poet s birth must fall somewhere between 610 1213 14 and 615 1218 19 See the Sa di nama ed Ḥabib Yaghma i Tehran 1316 1937 8 627 45 especially 640 10 Katouzian Sa di p 11 Leadership through the Classics Learning Management and Leadership from Ancient East and West Philosophy Springer 2014 p 194 ISBN 978 3 642 32445 1 Retrieved 2015 03 20 Muslih al Din Saadi Shirazi rasekhoon net a b Katouzian Sa di p 10 Katouzian Sa di pp 10 15 The Bustan of Sadi Chapter III Concerning Love Sacred texts com Retrieved 2012 08 13 Postans Thomas 1843 Personal Observations on Sindh The Manners and Customs of Its Inhabitants Thomas Postans Google Boeken ISBN 9788120617186 Retrieved 2012 08 13 Katouzian Saidi p 16 Katouzian Sa di p 13 a b c Sa di s Gulistan World Digital Library Retrieved 25 December 2013 The Gulistan of Sadi Chapter VII On The Effects Of Education Story 2 Sacred texts com Retrieved 2020 07 19 The Bustan of Sadi Chapter V Concerning Resignation Sacred texts com Retrieved 2012 08 13 Katouzian Sa di pp 25 33 35 Katouzian Sa di p 33 From Gulistan Saadi chapter 1 story 10 گلستان سعدی باب اول تصحیح محمدعلی فروغی Dibache com Retrieved 2012 08 13 Zarif Narrates Story of Iranian Carpet Hung up on UN s Wall Iran Front Page online April 19 2017 United Nations press release 500 rials cbi ir Retrieved 5 May 2020 Mehr News Agency article 7 Tir 1389 22 June 2010 quoted in Persian Wikipedia The webpage appears to be no longer available Vahid Dastjerdi H 2006 East of Sophia Mashriq e Ma rifat Qom Ansariyan Selections from Saadi s Gulisan translated by Richard Jeffrey Newman Global Scholarly Publications 2004 Secretary General Ban Ki moon Tehran Iran 30 August 2012 The English version is from the 2nd edition 1880 of the translation of the Gulistan by Edward Eastwick Iran Front Page article April 19 2017 Full text of Eugene Onegin is available here Yohannan J D Persian Poetry in England and America A Two Hundred Year History 1977 New York Caravan Books ISBN 978 0882060064 pp XXV XXVI Milani A Lost Wisdom 2004 Washington ISBN 0 934211 90 6 p 39 US President Obama s New Year s greeting to the people of Iran March 2009 whitehouse gov 20 March 2009 Retrieved 2013 08 09 via National Archives Sadi Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature NASA Retrieved 23 May 2021 National commemoration of Saadi Day isna ir Empty mausoleum of Saadi Shiraz amid COVID 19 pandemic mehrnews com Saadi commemoration ceremony in Bandar Abbas yjc ir 1 Ordibehesht Saadi Commemoration Day bultannews com Saadi Commemoration Day isna ir Saadi Shirazi Commemoration Day hawzah net Commemoration of Saadi yjc irReferences EditBrowne E G 1906 reprinted 1956 Literary History of Persia volume 2 From Firdawsi to Sa di Cambridge University Press Chopra R M Great Poets of Classical Persian Sparrow Publication Kolkata 2014 ISBN 978 81 89140 75 5 Homerin Th Emil 1983 Sa di s Somnatiyah Iranian Studies Vol 16 No 1 2 Winter Spring 1983 pp 31 50 Ingenito Domenico 2020 Beholding Beauty Sa di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry Brill Katouzian Homa 2006 Sa di the Poet of Life Love and Compassion A comprehensive study of Sa di and his works 2006 ISBN 1 85168 473 5 Southgate Minoo S 1984 Men Women and Boys Love and Sex in the Works of Sa di Iranian Studies Vol 17 No 4 Autumn 1984 pp 413 452 Wickens G M 1985 The Bustan of Sheikh Moslehedin Saadi Shirazi English translation and the Persian original 1985 Iranian National Commission for Unesco No 46 Rypka Jan 1968 History of Iranian Literature Reidel Publishing Company OCLC 460598 ISBN 90 277 0143 1 Thackston W M 2008 The Gulistan of Sa di Bilingual English translation Persian text on facing page ISBN 978 1 58814 058 6Further reading EditIngenito Domenico 2020 Beholding Beauty Sa di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry Brill J N Mattock The Early History of the Maqama Journal of Arabic Literature Vol 25 1989 pp 1 18External links Edit Quotations related to Saadi at Wikiquote Works by or about Saadi at Wikisource Media related to Sa di at Wikimedia Commons Iran Chamber Society information Persian Language amp Literature Saadi Shirazi Works by or about Saadi Shirazi at Internet Archive Works by Saadi Shirazi at LibriVox public domain audiobooks in English 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 and Arabic Verses in Persian and Chaghatay featuring work by Sa di c 1600 in English and Arabic Ghazal by Sa di News story about United Nations Bani Adam carpet Photograph of the carpet containing Saadi s Bani Adam presented to the United Nations cf Payvand News Aug 24 2005 Bani Adam recited in Persian by Amir H Ghaseminejad Introduction to the Golestan recited in Persian by Hamidreza Mohammadi Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Saadi Shirazi amp oldid 1116853317, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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