Saadi Shirazi

سعدی شیرازی

1218–1295

Mosharraf al-Din Mosleh ibn Abdollah Shirazi was a great poet and writer of the seventh century AH. Literary scholars have given him the titles "Master of Speech," "King of Speech," "the Most Eminent Sheikh," and even, in an absolute sense, "the Master." His pen name is "Saadi," taken from the name of the Atabak Mozaffar al-Din Saad, son of Abu Bakr, son of Saad, son of Zangi. He was probably born between 600 and 615 AH. In his youth he went to the Nizamiyya school in Baghdad and studied literature, Quranic exegesis, jurisprudence, theology, and philosophy. He then traveled to Syria, Morocco, Abyssinia, and the Hijaz, and after returning to Shiraz he set about composing his masterpieces. In 655 AH, Saadi versified the Saadi-nameh, or Bustan, and in the following year (656 AH) he wrote the Golestan. In addition to these, he also produced odes (qasidas), ghazals, fragments (qet'as), a tarji-band, quatrains (rubaiyat), and treatises and Arabic odes, all of which have been collected in his Kolliyat (Complete Works). Saadi is the first Iranian poet whose works were translated into a European language. He died in Shiraz between 690 and 694 AH and was buried there, at a site now known as the Saadiyeh.