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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 April 2009
Persian literature has produced few poets who can rival Saʿdi. A powerful personality, an undisputed mastery of his art, a far-reaching influence, and an enchanting sense of humor are only a few on the long list of his widely accepted virtues. His critics have described his personality as “curious” and “captivating,” and his poetry as pure magic. As the undisputed master of eloquence he is commonly referred to as ustād-i sukhan by the lay and the expert alike. To these cherishing remarks one may easily add a multitude of others and yet they reflect little more than admiration. Curiously, the existing critical literature on Saʿdi offers little in the way of clarification or further exploration of these intriguing but ambiguous descriptions. One is tempted to ask why the “curious” and “captivating” personality of Saʿdi has not been the subject of separate studies. Along the same lines, how accessible is the personality of the poet through his poetry? Or more specifically, what would be the outcome of exploring his works in search of the way he envisioned himself? The present paper is a first step toward such an exploration in an attempt to deal mostly with this last question. If the major aim in any biographical study, as Nadel puts it, is to “discern the complexities of being without pretending that life's riddles have been answered” then much light could be shed on the complexities of Saʿdi's personality in this way.
1 Rypka, Jan, History of Persian Literature, trans. Popta-Hope, P. Van (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1968), 250Google Scholar.
2 Nadel, Ira Bruce, Biography: Fiction, Fact and Form (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984), 153Google Scholar.
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4 Ibid., 240–42.
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9 A well-known example of a poet traveling in search of a proper patron is the case of Farrukhi (d. 1037–38) who “from being in the service of a dihgān came via the court of Chaghāniyān to Ghazna, where he sang the praises of Maḥmūd,” Rypka, , History, 176Google Scholar.
10 Ṣafā, Zabīh Allāh, Tārīkh-i Adabiyyāt dar Īrān (Tehran: Intishārāt-i Firdaws, 1987), 2:893–989Google Scholar.
11 ibid., 776–83.
12 For information on various editions and translations of the Gulistān and the Būstān, see Yohannan, John D., The Poet Saʿdī: A Persian Humanist (New York: University Press of America, 1987), 1–16Google Scholar. For Persian quotations from the Bustān and the Gulistān the following has been used: Kulliyāt-i Shaykh Saʿdī, ed. Furūghī, Muḥammad ʿAlī (Tehran: Mūsā ʿIlmī, 1959)Google Scholar. For English quotations from the Būstān and the Gulistān, see Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned: The Būstīn of Saʿdī, trans. Wickens, G. M. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974)Google Scholar; The Gulistān or Rose Garden of Saʿdī, trans. Rehatsek, Edward (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965)Google Scholar.
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14 Matīnī, Jalāl, “Maqāmah-ʾī manẓūm bi-zabān-i Fārsī,” īrān Nāmah 3 (1985): 706Google Scholar. For a comprehensive and critical review of biographical works on Saʿdi, see Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Muḥīṭ, “Nukātī dar Sarguzasht-i Saʿdī” in Zikr-i Jamīl-i Saʿdī, 3:185–211Google Scholar.
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16 In addition to the works which all discuss Saʿdī's travels, for specific treatment of the subject, see Boyle, John Andrew, “The Chronology of Saʿdī's Years of Travel,” in Islamwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen: Fritz Meier zum sechzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Gramlich, R. (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1974), 1–8Google Scholar; Ansari, Hasan Nishat, “Did Shaykh Saʿdī Visit India?” Journal of the Bihar Research Society 59 (1973): 173–86Google Scholar; Akhtar, Ahmedmian, “Saʿdī's Visit to Somnat,” Islamic Culture 8 (1934): 212–21Google Scholar; Browne, Edward G., A Literary History of Persia: From Firdawsi to Saʿdī (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906), 528–29Google Scholar, accepts that Saʿdī traveled eastwards to India and westwards to Africa.
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18 Ibid., 530.
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20 Iqbāl, ʿAbbās, “Zamān-i Tavallud va Avāʾil-i zindagānī-i Saʿdī,” Majallah-i Taʿlīm wa-Tarbiyat (Bahman wa Isfand 1937): 636Google Scholar.
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22 Beeston, A. F. L., “al-Hamadhānī, al-Ḥarīrī and the maqāmāt Genre,” in Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: ʿAbbasid Belles-Lettres, ed. Ashtiany, Julia et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 135Google Scholar.
23 One can briefly note here that other generalizations and unquestioned notions of generic function in Persian poetry call for serious modification. Panegyric poetry, for instance, long taken as a symptom of social moral decay and an instrument of material gain is shown, in the light of more recent studies, to have had a more complex and significant function. In the case of Saʿdi, this is well demonstrated by Barat Zanjani's analysis of the panegyric qaṣīda written for Atabak. See Zanjānī, Barāt, “Sukhanwarī-i zīrakānah dar Qalamraw-i Saʿdī” in Zikr-ī Jamīl-i Saʿdī, 2:197–208Google Scholar.
24 Matīnī, , “Maqāmah-ʿī manṣūm bi-zabān-i Fārsī,” 717–18Google Scholar.
25 Sardar, Ashraf Abu Turab Zia, A Time to Speak: Anecdotes from Saʿdī Shirazi (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 1976), 2Google Scholar.
26 Rypka, , History of Persian Literature, 250Google Scholar.
27 Mīnuvī, Mujtabā, “Zikr-i jamīl-i Saʿdī,” Yaghmā 3 (1952): 97–102Google Scholar.
28 Skalmowski, Wojciech, “Notes on the Ghazals of Saʿdi and Hafiz,” Orienlalia Lovaniensia Periodica 10 (1979): 273Google Scholar.
