The New Student's Reference Work/Sadi

Sadi (sä′dē), the assumed name of Sheikh Muslih Ad-din, one of the most celebrated of Persian poets, who was born at Shiraz about 1184. Little is known of his life. His father's name was Abdallah, and he was a descendant of Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law. He studied science and theology at Bagdad. He traveled for many years in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe. The catalogue of his works contains 22 different kinds of writing in prose and poetry, in Arabic and Persian. The greater part are odes and dirges. The finest of his works is Gulistan or The Flower-Garden — a kind of moral work in prose and verse, made up of eight chapters on such subjects as kings, old age and education, with stories, puns and maxims. Two others of his works are Bustan or The Tree-garden and Pand-Namah or The Book of Instructions. See Robinson's Persian Poetry for English Readers and Sir Edwin Arnold's With Sadi in the Garden.