Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/161

Rh S A D S A D 143 Ghiyath-uddin (1223). Sadly grieved by the misfortune of his generous patron and disgusted with the miserable state to which Persia had been reduced, Sa'di started in 1224 or 1225 on his way to India, thus entering on the second period of his life that of his wanderings (1225- 1255). He proceeded via Balkh, Ghazni, and the Punjab to Gujrat, on the western coast of which he visited the famous shrine of Siwa in Pattan-SumanAt, and met with a remarkable adventure. Having seen the statue of the god lifting up its hands to heaven every morning at sun- rise, he discovered that a priest, hidden behind the image, wrought the miracle by means of a cord; but, being caught in the very act of watching the performance, he had no alternative but to hurl his pursuer into a deep well and to escape at full speed, -not, however, until he had smashed the detested statue. After a prolonged stay in Delhi, where he acquired the knowledge of Hindustani which he afterwards turned to account in several of his poems just as a number of excellent Arabic kasidas bear witness to his fluency in that idiom which he had learnt in Baghdad he sailed for Yemen. In San'a, the capital of Yemen, the loss of a beloved child (when he had married is not known) threw him into deep melancholy, from which only a new adventurous expedition into Abys- sinia on the opposite African shore and a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina could again rouse him. Thence he directed his steps towards Syria and lived as a renowned sheikh for a considerable time in Damascus, which he had once already visited. There and in Baalbec he added to his literary renown that of a first-rate pulpit orator. Specimens of his spiritual addresses are preserved in the five homilies (on the fugitiveness of human life, on faith and fear of God, on love towards God, on rest in God, and on the search for God) which usually form the second risalah or prose treatise in Sa'di's complete works. At last weary of Damascus he withdrew into the desert near Jerusalem and led a solitary wandering life, till one day he was taken captive by a troop of Frankish soldiers, brought to Tripoli, and condemned to forced labour in the trenches of the fortress. After enduring countless hard- ships, he was eventually rescued by a rich friend in Aleppo, who paid his ransom, and moreover gave him his daughter in marriage. But Sa'di, unable to live with his quarrel- some wife, set out on new travels, first to North Africa and then through the length and breadth of Asia Minor and the adjoining countries. Not until he had passed his seventieth year did he return to Shiraz (about 1255 ; 653 A.H.). Finding the place of his birth tranquil and pros- perous under the wise rule of Abubakr b. Sa'd, the son of his old patron (1226-1260; 623-658 A.H.), the aged poet took up his permanent abode, interrupted only by repeated pilgrimages to Mecca, in a little hermitage out- side the town, in the midst of a charming garden, and devoted the remainder of his life to Sufic contemplation and poetical composition. Sa'di died at Shiraz in 1292 (691 A.H.) according to Hamdallah Mustauff (who wrote only forty years later), or in December 1291 (690 A.H.), at the age of 110 lunar years. The experience of the world gained during his travels, his intimate acquaintance with the various countries he had visited, his insight into human character, its grandeur and its littleness, which a thirty years' intercourse with men of all ranks and of many nationalities had fully matured, together with an inborn loftiness of thought and the purest moral standard, made it easy for Sa'di to compose in the short space of three years his two masterpieces, which have immortalized his name, the Btistdn or "Fruit-garden" (1257) and the Gulistdn or "Rose-garden " (1258), both dedicated to the reign- ing Atabeg Abubakr. The former, also called Sa'dindma, is a kind of didactic epopee in ten chapters and double-rhymed verses, which passes in review the highest philosophical and religious questions, not seldom in the very spirit of Christianity, and abounds with sound ethical maxims and matchless gems of transcendental specu- lation. The latter is a prose work of a similar tendency in eight chapters, interspersed with numerous verses and illustrated, like the Bustan, by a rich store of clever tales and charming anecdotes ; it discusses more or less the same topics as the larger work, but has acquired a much greater popularity in both the East and the West, owing to its easier and more varied style, its attractive lessons of practical wisdom, and its numerous bon-mots. But Sa'di's Diwdn, or collection of lyrical poetry, far surpasses iheHustdn and Gulistdn, at any rate in quantity, whether in quality also is a matter of taste. Other minor works are the Arabic kasidas, the first of which laments the destruction of the Arabian caliphate by the Mongols in 1258 (656 A.H.) ; the Persian kasidas, partly panegyrical, partly didactical ; the mardthl, or elegies, beginning with one on the death of Abubakr and ending with one on the defeat and demise of the last caliph, Musta'sim ; the mulammddt, or poems with alternate Persian and Arabic verses, of a rather artificial character ; the tarjidt, or refrain-poems ; the ghazals, or odes ; the sdhibiyyah and mukatta'dt, or moral aphorisms and epigrams ; the rubd'iyydt, or quatrains ; and the mufraddt, or distichs. Sa'di's lyrical poems possess neither the easy grace and melodious charm of Hafiz's songs nor the overpowering grandeur of Jelal-uddin Rumi's divine hymns, but they are nevertheless full of deep pathos and show such a fearless love of truth as is seldom met with in Eastern poetry. Even his panegyrics, although addressed in turn to almost all the rulers who in those days of continually changing dynasties presided over the fate of Persia, are free from that cringing servility so com- mon in the effusions of Oriental encomiasts. The first who collected and arranged his works was 'Ali b. Ahmad b. Bisutiin (1326-1334 ; 726-734 A.H.). The most exact information about Sa'di's life and works is found in the introduction to Dr W. Bacher's Sa'di's Aphoris- rnen und Sinngedichte, Strasburg, 1879 (a complete metrical translation of the epigrammatic poems), and in the same author's "Sa'di Studien," in Z.D.M.G., xxx. pp. 81-106. Sa'di's Kulliyydt or complete works have been edited by graphed editions, see Rieu's Pers. Cat. of the Srit. Mus., ii. p. 596. The Bustan, has been printed in Calcutta (1810 and 1828), as well as in Lahore, Cawnpore, Tabriz, &c. ; a critical edition with Persian commentary was published by K. H. Graf at Vienna in 1850 (German metrical translations by the same, Jena, 1850, and by Schlechta-Wssehrd, Vienna, 1852; English translation by W. Clarke, London, 1879 ; French translation by Barbier de Meynard, Paris, 1880). The best editions of the Gulistdn are by A. Sprenger (Calcutta, 1851) and by Platts (London, 1874) ; the best translations into English by Eastwick (1852) and by Platts (1873) ; into French by Defremery (1858) ; into German by Graf (1846) ; see also S. Robinson's Persian Poetry for English Readers, 1883, pp. 245- 366. Select kasidas, ghazals, elegies, quatrains, and distichs have been edited, with a German metrical translation, by Graf, in the Z.D.M.G., ix. p. 92 sq., xii. p. 82 sq., xiii. p. 445 sq., xv. p. 541 sq., and xviii. p. 570 sq. On the Sufic character of Sa'di in contrast to Hafiz and Jelal-uddin Rumi, comp. Ethe, "Der Sufismus und seine drei Hauptvertreter," in Morgenlandische Studien, Leipsic, 1870, p. 95-124. (H. E.) SADLER, SIR RALPH (1507-1587), English statesman, was the son of Henry Sadler, steward to the proprietor of the manor of Gillney, near Great Hadham, Hertford- shire, and was born at Hackney in Middlesex in 1507. While a mere child he obtained a situation in the family of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex. Through him he was introduced to Henry VIII., who conferred on him various appointments and employed him in connexion with the dissolution of the monasteries, in the rich spoils of which he was a large sharer. So much was the king impressed by Sadler's ability and address that he made choice of him for his subsequent important negotiations with Scotland. In 1537 he was sent thither to strengthen the English interest; in 1539-40 he was commissioned to persuade the Scottish king James V. to cast off the supremacy of the pope ; in 1541 he went back to enforce the same counsel; and in 1542 he was appointed to settle the proposed match be- tween Edward prince of Wales and Mary the infant queen of Scots. Although not successful in any of these missions, he continued to retain the full confidence of the king, who, in recognition of his zealous services, conferred on him in 1543 the honour of knighthood. On Henry's death in 1547 Sadler's name was found in the royal will as one of the councillors to the sixteen nobles who were entrusted with the guardianship of the young king. In the same year he was appointed treasurer to the army sent against Scotland, and for his great services in rallying the repulsed cavalry he was created a knight -banneret on the battlefield of Pinkie. During the reign of Mary he lived in retirement on his estate near Hackney ; but on the accession of Eliza- beth in 1558 he came once more into a sphere of active employment. He immediately became a member of parlia- ment for the county of Hertford and a privy councillor.