Byname of MUSHARRIF OD-DIN MUSLIH OD-DIN, Persian poet, one of the greatest figures in classical Persian literature. He lost his father, Mosleh od-Din, in early childhood; later he was sent to study in Baghdad at the renowned Nezamiyeh College, where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam. The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led him to wander abroad through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. He refers in his work to travels in India and Central Asia, but these cannot be confirmed. In North Africa he was held captive by the Franks and put to work in the trenches of the fortress of Tripoli. When he reappeared in his native Shiraz he was an elderly man. He seems to have spent the rest of his life in Shiraz. Sa'di took his nom de plume from the name of the local Atabeg, or prince, Sa'd ibn Zangi. His best known works are the Bustan (1257; The Orchard, 1882) and the Gulistan (1258; The Rose Garden, 1964). The Bustan is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behaviour of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. The Gulistan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. The morals preached in the Gulistan border on expediency--e.g., a well-intended lie is admitted to be preferable to a seditious truth. Sa'di demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes. For Western students the Bustan and Gulistan have a special attraction; but Sa'di is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist, the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience, and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat ("Lyrics") and his odes in Qasa'id ("Odes"). He is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humour, and resignation displayed in Sa'di's works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most typical and lovable writer in the world of Iranian culture.
