Saadi Shirazi

Who is Saadi Shirazi?

Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi, known as Saadi, was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period, born in Shiraz. He studied in Baghdad and travelled widely through the Islamic world — including Arabia, Syria, and possibly India and Anatolia — before returning to his native Shiraz. His two most famous works are the Bustan (The Orchard, 1257), a poem on ethics and virtue, and the Golestan (The Rose Garden, 1258), a collection of stories and maxims mixing prose and verse. Saadi is renowned for the clarity, wit, and humane wisdom of his writing, and his aphorisms remain part of everyday Persian speech. His verse beginning 'The human beings are members of a whole' is famously associated with themes of shared humanity. Saadi is buried in Shiraz, where his mausoleum, the Saadieh, is a national landmark.

Sources: Saadi, Golestan (1258) · Saadi, Bustan (1257) · Encyclopaedia Iranica, entry 'Saʿdi'