Two almond kernels in the same shell.-Saad Shirazi

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 in

or around 1200. He died in Shiraz in or around 1292 of old

age.

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.

1256 is the date usually assigned for the time when Sa'di's

zeal for travel gave in to his desire to document the fruits of

his travels. 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. Not only was he

welcomed to the city but was respected highly by the ruler

and enumerated among the greats of the province. In

response, 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

Bostan.

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:

Astride a horse I am not, nor camel-like carry a load,

Subjects I have none, nor follow any sultan's code;

I worry not for what exists, nor fret for what is lost,

I breathe with extreme ease, and live at very little

cost.

The volume is melodious in style with a predominance of

love in it. It expresses the poet's true emotions in its prose

as well as in its exemplary poetry. Furthermore, it is a gold

mine for effective use of metaphor displaying mystic love

in the guise of earthly love, and is redolent with contempt

for priesthood and authority. The first Persian literary

contribution to be translated into a Western tongue, the

Gulistan was translated by Rahatsek in Banares in 1888.

Sa'di's collected works includes 65 odes out of which 20 are

in Arabic. His odes are dedicated to such diverse themes as

spring, Shiraz, didactic matters, and religion. Only 20 of his

odes are devoted to either advising rulers or praising them.

Sa'di also wrote 200 quatrains, 7 elegies, and 737 sonnets.

Sa'di distinguished between the spiritual and the practical or

mundane aspects of life. In his Bustan, for example,

spiritual Sa'di uses the mundane world as a springboard to

propel himself beyond the earthly realms. The images in

Bustan are delicate in nature and soothing. In the Gulistan,

on the other hand, mundane Sa'di lowers the spiritual to

touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. Here the images are

graphic and, thanks to Sa'di's dexterity, remain concrete in

the reader's mind. Realistically, too, there is a ring of truth 
in the division. The Shaykh preaching in the Khaniqah

experiences a totally different world than the merchant

passing through a town. The unique thing about Sa'di is that

he embodies both the Sufi Shaykh and the traveling

merchant. They are, as he himself puts it, two almond

kernels in the same shell.

Although Sa'di's name is associated with many famous

names in the West, three have been instrumental in the

development of his persona. Sir William Jones, for whom

Sa'di was a household name while in India, introduced Sa'di

to England. From there, Sa'di's fame traveled to Europe and

was picked up by Victor Hugo, Honore-de Balzac, and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who added an international

dimension to Sa'di's fame and moved it across the Atlantic

in the direction of the American Transcendentalists Ralph

Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. Among the devoted

readers of this distinguished international group of poets,

Sa'di became as well-known as Omar Khayyam is known

today.

Fame, however, is a fleeting thing. Back in Britain, using

Sa'di's volumes as a textbook for learning the Persian

language, Edward Fitzgerald prepared his first edition of the

Ruba'iyyat of Omar Khayyam and published it

anonymously (1859). Its appeal surpassed that of the works

of Sa'di. In fact the popularity that the second edition of the

Ruba'iyyat received was unmatched by any other translation

of secular Asian poetry into English. Neither translations of

Sa'di's quatrains nor the translation of his other works in

quatrain form could turn the tide. Sa'di was thus forced to

share his fame with Khayyam and later with Hafiz.

Sa'di's prose style, described as "simple but impossible to

imitate" flows quite naturally and effortlessly. Its simplicity,

however, is grounded in a semantic web consisting of

synonymy, homophony, and oxymoron buttressed by

internal rhythm and external rhyme. Iranian authors over

the years have failed to imitate its style in their own

language, how can foreigners translate it into their own

language, no matter what language?

After the composition of the Gulistan, in 1258, Sa'di went

into retirement and was heard of no more. He is the

quintessential Muslim humanist, the first such wise man to

be recognized in the West.

The world honors Sa'di today by gracing the entrance to the

Hall of Nations in the United Nations in New York City

with a call for breaking all barriers. In the present author's

translation, it reads:

Of One Essence is the Human Race,

Thusly has Creation put the Base.

One Limb impacted is sufficient,

For all Others to feel the Mace.

The Unconcern'd with Others' Plight,

Are but Brutes with Human Face.

A Brief Chronology

1200? Sa'di is born in Shiraz

1206 Temuchin takes the title of Chingiz Khan

1220 The Khwarazm Shah is defeated by Chingiz Khan;

Sa'di's primary education in Shiraz ends

1226 Sa'di's education at the Baghdad Nizamiyyah ends

1227 Chingiz Khan dies

1241 Greater part of Russia is subjugated by Batu Khan

1243 Mongols defeat Seljuqs of Rum near Sivas

1256 Hulagu Khan takes Assassin stronghold of Alamut;

Berke, Batu Khan's brother, accepts Islam; Sa'di's

travels end

1257 Sa'di's Bustan is completed

1258 Hulagu Khan takes Baghdad; Sa'di's Gulistan is

completed

1259 Sa'di's retirement begins

1260 Mongols defeated by the Mamluks at 'Ayn Jalut

1271 Marco Polo travels through Persia to China

1273 Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi dies

1290? Sa'di dies in Shiraz