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 (&ldquo;Flower Garden&rdquo;), Bostan (&ldquo;Fruit Garden&rdquo;), Pend Nameh (&ldquo;Book of Counsels&rdquo;), numerous gazels or odes, elegies, &amp;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, vol. xiii., p. 323.)