National Day of Saadi Shirazi; Master of Speech

Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi, known by his pen-name Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period.

Saadi is known as a mystic and metaphysician in the history of Persian literature. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

The ancient scholar has gained worldwide fame, not only in the Persian-speaking countries but in western societies, with his poems being quoted in a multitude of sources.

Life

Saadi, who lost his father in childhood, experienced a youth of poverty and hardship; he left his hometown of Shiraz at a young age for Baghdad to pursue a better education. His first experience of education was at the Nezamiyeh University of Baghdad, where he studied Islamic sciences, theology, law, history, and Arabic literature. He traveled to different countries such as Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq for thirty years. He also visited Qods, Mecca, and Medina.

The Master of Speech, as he is called, was a man of learning and traveling.

He mingled with people from different groups from intellectuals, merchants, preachers, farmers, ordinary people to Sufi dervishes and even the thieves, trying to learn and study and also preach and advise people to gravitate toward wisdom and morality.

Returning to Shiraz as an elderly man, Saadi was greatly welcomed and respected by the ruler and the prominent figures of the city.

He spent the rest of his life in his birthplace till he passed away around 1292.