Iran Press/Iran News: Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi, known by his pen-name Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period.
Iranian poet Sa'adi, from the 13th century, is one of the major influential Persian poets of the medieval period. He is recognised in the literary world for the quality of his writing style and in the spiritual realm for the depth of his thoughts.
Sa'adi is best known for his works 'Gulistan' and 'Busan', poetry which emphasised a unity in mankind, an interdependence regardless of social barriers and labels. Many of his poems greatly impacted India, and had influence throughout central Asia.
Life
Saadi, who lost his father in childhood, experienced a youth of poverty and hardship; he left his hometown of Shiraz at a young age for Baghdad to pursue a better education. His first experience of education was at the Nezamiyeh University of Baghdad, where he studied Islamic sciences, theology, law, history, and Arabic literature. He traveled to different countries such as Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq for thirty years. He also visited Qods, Mecca, and Medina.
The Master of Speech, as he is called, was a man of learning and traveling. He mingled with people from different groups from intellectuals, merchants, preachers, farmers, and ordinary people to Sufi dervishes and even thieves, trying to learn and study and also preach and advise people to gravitate toward wisdom and morality.
Returning to Shiraz as an elderly man, Saadi was greatly welcomed and respected by the ruler and the prominent figures of the city.
He spent the rest of his life in his birthplace till he passed away around 1292.
Nature of Saadi’s poems
Saadi elaborately distinguishes between the spiritual and the mundane aspects of life in his works. He tries to visualize the deepest meanings of life in the most tangible contexts and close to conversational language as far as possible in such a way that even common people can get the most out of his writings.
He is a well-known poet among world scholars.
Goethe and Andre du Ryer presented Saadi to the West for the first time in 1634. The first complete translation of Golestan in English was done by Sir Richard Francis Burton.
In one of Saadi’s most well-known immortal poetries, which has been inscribed on United Nations building entrance, he considers all humans as different parts of a whole body, regardless of social barriers and race:
“Human beings are members of a whole
In creation of one essence and soul
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain
If you have no sympathy for human pain
The name of human you cannot retain”
Mausoleum
Saadi’s tomb is located in southern Shiraz. His mausoleum, also called Saadieh, is one of Iran’s major tourist attractions.
The tomb was first built in the 13th century. However, after being destroyed in the 17th century, it remained untouched till the present-day building was constructed in the 1950s.
Many Persian elements have been used in its architecture. It is also a National Heritage Site.
Every year, a number of literati and scholars from around the world gather at the mausoleum on April 21 to commemorate the great Persian poet.
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