A093 - Shaykh Sa'di

 Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din

Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din (Shaykh Muslih al-Din Sa‘di) (Musharrif al-Din bin Muslih Sa‘di) (Abu Muhammad Musharrif al-Din Muslih ibn Abd Allah Shirazi) (Sa'di) (Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī) (Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muṣlih al-Dīn) (c.1213 – December 9, 1291).  One of the greatest of Persian poets.  His works have always been esteemed and much quoted in the Muslim world for their homely and practical wisdom.  Little is known for certain about his life, as the autobiographical references he makes in his writings can not all to be taken seriously.

Sa’di  was the pen name of Abu Muhammad Musharrif al-Din Muslih ibn Abd Allah Shirazi.  Sa‘di was one of the great poets of the world and truly the best and most multi-faceted author in Persian literature.  He is often refered to by his countrymen as Afsah al-Mutakallimin (“most eloquent of speakers”).  He was born in Shiraz to a family of religious scholars and received his earliest education from his father.  His father died while Sa‘di was still very young, and he continued his education under the direction of his maternal grandfather.  Sa‘di might have continued his education in Shiraz, then a major center of learning, had not political turmoil in 1224, when the province of Fars was ravaged by the forces of the Khwarazmshah, forced him to leave his home town for further study at the Nizamiyya college of Baghdad. 

Sa‘di’s teachers at the Nizamiyya included Jamal al-Din Abu al-Faraj ibn Yahya al-Jauzi, a lecturer at the Mustansariyya college in Baghdad, to whom Sa‘di refers in his Gulistan.  During the years that Sa‘di was studying in Baghdad, Iran was being severely ravaged by the Mongol hordes, who destroyed cities and massacred their populations.  In about 1227, rather than going back to Shiraz, Sa‘di embarked on a traveling adventure in the Middle East, visiting scholars, theologians, Sufi shaikhs, and other distinguished figures of the time. 

Sa‘di made several pilgrimages to Mecca (fourteen by one account) and, if a story in his Gulistan is to be taken as true, was taken captive by the Crusaders in Tripoli.  The stories of his visits to India and Central Asia are most probably fictitious. 

In 1257, Sa‘di was back in Shiraz, which, under the wise administration of the Salghurid atabegs, had managed to escape unscathed the destruction brought by the Mongols to the other parts of Iran.  He became attached to the court of Atabeg Abu Bakr ibn Sa’d and his son Sa’d.  Except for another pilgrimage to Mecca Sa‘di spent the remaining years of his life in peace in Shiraz, enjoying the great honor and esteem that he deservedly received as a sage and great poet from kings, noblemen, and commoners alike.  He died in Shiraz and was buried to the east of the modern town, where his mausoleum, the Sa‘diyya, now stands. 

The enormous respect and reputation that Sa‘di enjoyed during his lifetime only increased after his death and is unmatched by any other poet in the Persian language.  His own remark that his poetry was eagerly sought after like gold leaves is hardly an exaggeration.  His contemporary, Amir Khusrau, a great poet in his own right, felt embarrassed that he dared to write poetry in Sa‘di’s age.  His poetry was put to music in China only half a century after his death.  His impact on later poetry has been tremendous, and his prose marked a turning point in Persian literary style.  For centuries, his Bustan and Gulistan have been the standard textbooks for serious students of Persian.

Sa‘di’s works (known as the Kulliyyat) include the Sa’dinama, or Bustan (Orchard), completed in 1257, in ten versified chapters; Gulistan (Rose Garden), an entertaining book on practical wisdom in rhymed prose (in the form of anecdotes) interspersed with short poems (it was called the “Bible of the Persians” by Emerson); ghazals (lyrics); qasidas (odes, a few in Arabic); satires; and a few short pieces in prose.

In 1258, Sa‘di completed Gulistan (“The Rose Garden”).  Gulistan is a collection of gnomic anecdotes written in rhyming prose with verse passages interspersed.  Gulistan is also known as Sa‘di-nama.   Gulistan is a collection of poems on ethical subjects, the latter a collection of moral stories in prose. 

The rest of his life was spent at Shiraz, where his tomb is still revered.

Sa‘di was also a prolific writer of occasional verse -- panegyric, elegies, and lyrics (ghazals).  As the popularizer of the ghazal form, Sa‘di paved the way for Hafiz.  

Sa‘di also wrote a volume of odes, and collections of poems known as Pleasantries, Jests and Obscenities.  He is regarded as the master of the ghazal.  His influence on Persian, Turkish and Indian literature has been very considerable, and his works were often translated into European languages from the seventeenth century onwards.

Sa'di lost his father, Muṣliḥ al-Dīn, in early childhood. Later he was sent to study in Baghdad at the renowned Neẓāmīyeh College, where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam. The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led him to wander abroad through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. He refers in his work to travels in India and Central Asia, but these cannot be confirmed. He claimed that he was held captive by the Franks and put to work in the trenches of the fortress of Tripoli (now in Lebanon). However, this story, like many of his other “autobiographical” anecdotes, is considered highly suspect. When he returned to his native Shīrāz, he was middle-aged. He seems to have spent the rest of his life in Shīrāz.

Saʿdī took his nom de plume from the name of a local atabeg (prince), Saʿd ibn Zangī. Saʿdī’s best-known works are the Būstān (1257; The Orchard) and the Gulistān (1258; The Rose Garden). The Būstān is entirely in verse (epic meter) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behavior of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. The Gulistān 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. The morals preached in the Gulistān border on expediency—e.g., a well-intended lie is admitted to be preferable to a seditious truth. Saʿdī 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 the Būstān and Gulistān have a special attraction; but Saʿdī is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist and as 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 after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazalīyāt (“Lyrics”) and his odes in Qaṣāʿīd (“Odes”). Six prose treatises on various subjects are attributed to him. He is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humor, and resignation displayed in Saʿdī’s works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most widely admired writer in the world of Iranian culture.




Shaykh Muslih al-Din Sa‘di see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din
Musharrif al-Din bin Muslih Sa‘di see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din
Abu Muhammad Musharrif al-Din Muslih ibn Abd Allah Shirazi see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din
Sa'di see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din
Musharrif al-Dīn ibn Muṣlih al-Dīn see Sa‘di, Shaykh Muslih al-Din