Saadi
Saadi’s life is divided into three parts. The first twenty five to thirty years of his life, he spent in different countries in educating himself and learning. He received his education at the Nizamiah College at Baghdad where he had a scholarship. From Gulistan, we can learn that Arabic was spoken with great purity at that time in Baghdad. Then, for thirty years he traveled widely from India in East to Syria in West making himself practically acquainted with things. He made his first pilgrimage to Mecca with his instructor in theology Abdul-Kabir Gilani. He repeated this pilgrimage not less than fourteen times. Finally, Sheikh Saadi returned to Shiraz and devoted the latter part of his life to writing books and to his students. Saadi was a disciple of Sheikh Shahabud-Din Sahrawardi.
His most famous masterpieces are: The Gulistan (Rose Garden) and The Bustan (Kitchen Garden). His tone in these two collections is more wry (kenayeh amiz), metaphorical and meant to be a means of teaching. His other work includes 1-6 Risalah or Treatise, Arabian Qasaids, Persian Qasaids, Marasi or Dirges, Mixed Poems, Persian and Arabic, Plain Ghazals, Rhetorical Ghazals, Fragments, Poems with recurring lines, Poems addressed to Shamsu’d-Din, Writings in earlier life and Writings in later life, Tetrastichs, and Distichs. Saadi is one of the wittiest writers of modern or ancient times. The beauty of Saadi’s style is that it is simple yet elegant. Mir Saiyid Ali Mushtak called Saadi the “Nightingale of a Thousand Songs” meaning that Saadi displayed perfection of genius in every part of poetry. Saadi’s work is translated into many western languages as well.
