National Day of Saadi Shirazi, herald of peace, love, friendship

April 21 has been marked as the National Day of Saadi, famous Iranian poet and writer who lived in the thirteenth century, and whose work is well-known and appreciated throughout the world.

Born in Shiraz around 1200 and died around 1292, 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.

The poetry, prose, thoughts, and ideas of Saadi has taken root in lands far and wide. For the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts, he is known as a mystic and metaphysician in the history of Persian literature.

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. 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. 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, ordinary people to Sufi dervishes and even the 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 and spent the rest of his life in his birthplace till he passed.

Saadi’s best-known masterpieces are Bustan (The Orchard) completed in 1257 and Gulistan (The Flower Garden) in 1258.

Bustan is quite in verse, including 4,000 verses in 183 stories about the virtues such as justice, kindness, love, modesty, liberality, generosity, satisfaction and happiness, and the ecstatic practices of dervishes addressing all people to have a better and happier life.

Gulistan, comprised of eight chapters is mainly in prose. The book widely addresses kings’ morality, dervishes’ behavior, benefits of contentment, silence and talking in proper time, love and youthfulness, weakness in old age, and education.

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.

His tomb is located in southern parts of Shiraz. His mausoleum, also called Saadieh, is one of Iran’s major tourist attractions. Many Persian elements have been used in its architecture. It is also a National Heritage Site.

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