The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Saadi, Sheik Moslih ed-Din

SAADI, Sheik Moslih ed-Din, a Persian poet, born in Shiraz, died in 1291, at the age of 102, or according to some authorities at a still higher age. He studied at Bagdad, became a dervish, made 15 pilgrimages on foot to Mecca, travelled in India and Egypt, and fought against the crusaders in Syria, where he was taken prisoner. A merchant of Aleppo ransomed him and gave him his daughter in marriage, with whom he led an unhappy life. After 30 years' wanderings, he returned to Shiraz and built himself a hermitage, where he passed his remaining years. He possessed great scientific knowledge, and was familiar with the principal oriental languages and Latin. His collected productions include the Gulistan (“Flower Garden”), Bostan (“Fruit Garden”), Pend Nameh (“Book of Counsels”), numerous gazels or odes, elegies, &c. The whole, in Persian and Arabic, edited by Harrington, were printed at Calcutta in 1791 (2 vols. small fol.); and of the Gulistan editions have been published with a parallel English translation by James Dumoulin (Calcutta, 1807), and with a vocabulary by Eastwick (Hertford, 1850), who translated it into English prose and verse (1862). The Gulistan has been translated into German by Olearius (Schleswig, 1654) and Graf (Leipsic, 1846); and into French by Gaudin (Paris, 1791), Semelet (1828; 2d ed., 1834), and Charles Defrémery (1858). (See Persia, Language and Literature of, vol. xiii., p. 323.)