I lived from 1184-1291.
I was from Persia, and am in the Asian category.
Poet, prose writer and thinker, Muslihuddin Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Mushrifuddin Sa'di, also referred to as Shaykh Sa'di and Sa'di Shirazi, was born in Shiraz Persia.
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Little is known about the formative years of the poet's life other than that his father, Mushrifi Shirazi, was a religious man and of a religious persuasion. When Sa'di was about twelve years old, his father passed away and the family came under the protection of Sa'di's uncle who had a small shop in Shiraz. With the help of his uncle, Sa'di completed his early education in Shiraz. The end of his elementary education coincides roughly with the invasion of Central Asia by Chingiz Khan and the devastation of Khujand, Samarqand, and Bukhara, the Iranian peoples' most cherished cultural centers.
Sa'di left increasingly turbulent Shiraz for Baghdad where he could study the Arabic language, Arab literature, hadith, the Qur'an,and commentaries on the holy book at the Nizamiyyah Academy. Once his education was complete, he left Baghdad and until 1256, traveled extensively in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, and Abyssinia and in the eastern Islamic lands, particularly in Turkistan. In the east, he might have traveled as far as India.
Sa'di's travels coincide with a time when Chingiz Khan (1206-1227) passed the scepter of Mongol power to Ogadai Khan (1221-1241) and when, under Khan Mongke (1251-1258), Batu Khan devastated Russia and Eastern Europe. In this respect, Sa'di is very much like Marco Polo who traveled in the region from 1271 to 1294. There is a difference, however, between the two. While Marco Polo gravitated to the potentates and the good life, Sa'di mingled with the ordinary survivors of the Mongol holocaust. He sat in remote teahouses 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, learning, honing his sermons, and polishing them into gems illuminating the wisdom and foibles of his people.
He returned to his home town of Shiraz which, under Atabak Abubakr Sa'd ibn Zangy (1231-60) was enjoying an era of relative tranquility. Sa'di composed some of his most delightful panegyrics as an initial gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed them at the beginning of his Bustan.
Intended as a vehicle for the transmission of his poetic and literary gifts, the Bustan (orchard) is an exquisite piece of didactic poetry composed in 1257. It is comprised of ten sections of verse, each a dissertation on wisdom, justice, compassion, good government, beneficence, earthly and mystic love, resignation, contentment, and humility. Dedicated to Abubakr Zangy, over the centuries, many of its verses have become popular proverbs, an indication of the level of excellence at which the public holds this contribution of the Shaykh.
Within a year of the composition of Bustan, Sa'di authored another volume which he entitled Gulistan. Dedicated to Sa'd ibn Zangy, the Gulistan (rose garden) is intended to pass to subsequent generations the essence of the Shaykh's sermons. The volume consists of a cycle of eight rhymed-prose partitions each interspersed with poetry. The themes discussed include the manners of kings, the morals of dervishes, the preference of contentment, the advantages of keeping silent, as well as youth, old age, and the like. The following, translated by this author, illustrates Sa'di's attitude towards wealth and authority vis-a-vis freedom and enjoyment of a tranquil life.
Iraj Bashiri
Image source: semo.edu
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