Biography Saadi was born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1208, or a little earlier. In the Golestan, composed in 1258, he says in lines evidently addressed to himself, "O you who have lived fifty years and are still asleep"; another piece of evidence is that in one of his qasida poems he writes that he left home for foreign lands when the Mongols came to his homeland Fars, an event which occurred in 1225.[3]
It seems that his father died when he was a child. He narrates memories of going out with his father as a child during festivities.
After leaving Shiraz he enrolled at the Nizamiyya University in Baghdad, where he studied Islamic sciences, law, governance, history, Arabic literature, and Islamic theology; it appears that he had a scholarship to study there. In the Golestan, he tells us that he studied under the scholar Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (presumably the younger of two scholars of that name, who died in 1238).[4]
In the Bustan and Golestan Saadi tells many colourful anecdotes of his travels, although some of these, such as his supposed visit to the remote eastern city of Kashgar in 1213, may be fictional.[5] The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Khwarezm and Iran led him to wander for thirty years abroad through Anatolia (where he visited the Port of Adana and near Konya met ghazi landlords), Syria (where he mentions the famine in Damascus), Egypt (where he describes its music, bazaars, clerics and elites), and Iraq (where he visits the port of Basra and the Tigris river). In his writings he mentions the qadis, muftis of Al-Azhar, the grand bazaar, music and art. At Halab, Saadi joins a group of Sufis who had fought arduous battles against the Crusaders. Saadi was captured by Crusaders at Acre where he spent seven years as a slave digging trenches outside its fortress. He was later released after the Mamluks paid ransom for Muslim prisoners being held in Crusader dungeons.
Saadi visited Jerusalem and then set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.[6] It is believed that he may have also visited Oman and other lands in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
Because of the Mongol invasions he was forced to live in desolate areas and met caravans fearing for their lives on once-lively silk trade routes. Saadi lived in isolated refugee camps where he met bandits, Imams, men who formerly owned great wealth or commanded armies, intellectuals, and ordinary people. While Mongol and European sources (such as Marco Polo) gravitated to the potentates and courtly life of Ilkhanate rule, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the war-torn region. He sat in remote tea houses 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, and learning, honing his sermons to reflect the wisdom and foibles of his people. Saadi's works reflect upon the lives of ordinary Iranians suffering displacement, agony and conflict during the turbulent times of the Mongol invasion.
Saadi Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara. Saadi mentions honey-gatherers in Azarbaijan, fearful of Mongol plunder. He finally returns to Persia where he meets his childhood companions in Isfahan and other cities. At Khorasan Saadi befriends a Turkic Emir named Tughral. Saadi joins him and his men on their journey to Sindh where he meets Pir Puttur, a follower of the Persian Sufi grand master Shaikh Usman Marvandvi (1117–1274).[7]
He also refers in his writings about his travels with a Turkic Amir named Tughral in Sindh (Pakistan across the Indus and Thar), India (especially Somnath, where he encounters Brahmans), and Central Asia (where he meets the survivors of the Mongol invasion in Khwarezm). Tughral hires Hindu sentinels. Tughral later enters service of the wealthy Delhi Sultanate, and Saadi is invited to Delhi and later visits the Vizier of Gujarat. During his stay in Gujarat, Saadi learns more...
Read moreSaadi Mausoleum is considered one of the most famous sights in Shiraz and has always been the focus of literary lovers and people of poetry. The special atmosphere of this complex is attractive to every tourist and its unique building with a combination of old and new architecture, raised columns and azure tiles, captures the heart of every viewer. Saadi tomb is one of the most important sights of Fars province, which is located in the northeast of Shiraz, on the slopes of the mountain, and is located at the end of Bostan street and next to Delgosha garden. You can use public transport or private car to reach Saadi Tomb. The buses of Shahid Dastgheeb Terminal-Narjestan Boulevard and Narenjestan Boulevard-Namazi Terminal lines have a station called Saadiyeh near this place. A little walk is required from this station to the destination. The nearest metro station is Valiasr station, which is a few kilometers away from Sadia. Saadiyeh was originally Saadi Khanqah, where he lived towards the end of his life and then was buried there. For the first time in the 7th century, a tomb was built over Saadi's grave by Khwaja Shamsuddin Muhammad Sahib Diwani, the famous minister of Abaqa Khan. In 998, by the order of Yaqub Zul-Qadr, the ruler of Fars, the Sheikh's monastery was destroyed and no trace of it remained. Ibn Batuyeh, 35 years after Saadi's death, wrote a report about the tomb of this poet, which is the oldest report about Saadi's tomb. According to this text, visitors to Saadi's tomb used to wash their clothes in marble basins. According to an old belief, washing clothes in this water gives it healing properties.
In 1187 AH, by order of Karim Khan Zand, a royal mansion made of plaster and brick was built over the Sheikh's tomb, which consisted of two floors. The lower floor had a corridor where the stairs to the second floor started. According to Mohammad Taghi Behrouzi's narration, in the early Qajar period, one of the scholars of Shiraz ordered the destruction and breaking of Saadi's tombstone due to Saadi's attribution to the Sunni religion. Some time later, Ali Akbar Khan Qavamul-Mulk Shirazi prepares and installs the current stone and engraves a part of Saadi's poems in Bostan, which he wrote in praise of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH), with a slight change on it. This stone existed in the building built by Karim Khan Zand until the beginning of the construction of the present tomb.
This building was restored in the Qajar era (1301) by Fath Ali Khan Sahib Diwan, and a few years later, Habibullah Qavam al-Mulk Khan ordered the repair and restoration of a part of the building. Mohsen Foroughi was a modernist architect who loved the history and cultural background of Iran. He considered the formal and superficial perception of history to be the superficiality of his young colleagues and was of the opinion that the relationship between buildings in terms of style and form can be divided into two categories: the apparent relationship and the real relationship. For Foroughi, the external relationship is like the buildings built at the beginning of the formation period of Sassanid architecture, which tried to create a similarity between Sassanid and Achaemenid architecture by modeling it on Achaemenid...
Read moreSaadi Tomb is one of the tourist attractions of Shiraz, which has been a land of poetry for a long time. Saadi is one of the valuable Iranian poets who is world famous and his poems have become very popular in all parts of the world. The tomb of this great poet is located in Shiraz and tourists must visit this unique paradise to visit it.This esteemed poet had a great influence on the Persian language, so that his precious works were taught for a long time in various schools and schools. Simplification was one of the features of his works that was unique in his time and this caused him to be given titles such as: Master, King of Speech, Master of Speech and Sheikh Ajal. Saadi's tomb has been considered as one of the national monuments of Iran since 1975, and the tomb of this great poet can be seen on five hundred rial bronze coins and one hundred thousand rial banknotes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Saadi's tomb is also called Saadiya. Around this place is full of soaring and lush trees that have doubled its beauty.The history of Saadi or Saadiyeh tomb dates back to the seventh century. After the death of this famous poet, for the first time, Khajeh Shamsuddin Mohammad, who was the famous minister of Abaqajan, built a tomb above Saadi's tomb. In 998, by the order of Yaqub Zolghadr, the ruler of Persia, the Sheikh Monastery was destroyed and in 1187, by the order of Karim Khan Zand, a brick and plaster mansion was built on top of it in two floors. It was ending. One of the Qajar kings, Beh Fath Ali Khan, the owner of the court, was restored, and a few years later, Habibullah ordered the repair and restoration of part of the building. Where is Saadi's tomb?
Saadi's tomb is located in the northeast of Shiraz at the foot of a mountain and is located at the end of Bustan Street next to Delgosha Garden. If you want to reach this place by public transport, all you have to do is get off the bus at Shahid Dastgheib-Narenjestan Boulevard at Saadia station and there is not a long way to your destination. The nearest metro station is Valiasr station, which is a few kilometers away...
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