Saadi
سعدی
The moralist of Shiraz, whose Golestan has taught Persian prose to every generation since.
- Known for
- The Golestan and the Bustan
- Forms
- Ghazal, Prose and verse
- Places
- Farsفارس
- Mesopotamiaمیانرودان
- Collection
- The Greats
Saadi left Shiraz as a young man and travelled for decades before returning home. In 1257 he finished the Bustan (The Orchard), in verse, and in 1258 the Golestan (The Rose Garden), in prose mixed with verse: short stories of kings, dervishes and ordinary people, told with wit and good sense.
His lines on the common humanity of all people, Bani Adam, are among the most quoted in Persian.
Booksکتابها
The principal works of Saadi.
The Bustan (The Orchard)
بوستانSaadi’s book of moral tales in verse, written on his return to Shiraz after long travels. In ten chapters on justice, kindness, love, humility, contentment and gratitude, it gathers anecdotes of kings, dervishes and ordinary people, and was long a school text across the Persian-speaking world.
Read the poemThe Golestan (The Rose Garden)
گلستانSaadi’s masterpiece, written a year after the Bustan: short stories in rhythmic prose, each crowned with lines of verse, in eight chapters on kings, dervishes, contentment, silence, love and youth, old age, education and the manners of company. Its wit and economy made it the model of Persian prose for centuries.
Read the poemThe Ghazals (Kolliyat)
غزلیات سعدیSaadi’s lyric poems, gathered with his other works in his Kolliyat, or Collected Works. Plain in language and supple in music, his ghazals of love brought the form to a first perfection, and Hafez learned from them. Many are still sung today.
Poems by Saadiشعرها
In the original Persian, beside an English translation.
به نام خداوند جانآفرین
حکیم سخن در زبانآفرین
In the name of the Lord who creates the soul,
the Wise One who creates speech upon the tongue;
In the Name of the Creator of Souls
بنی آدم اعضای یک پیکرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
The children of Adam are limbs of one body,
for in creation they are of one essence.
The Children of Adam
Saadi in Iranian history
Iranian historySeljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanidsسلجوقیان، مغولان و ایلخانان
Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.