Texts of Islam

The Bustan of Sadi: Prologue

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This is an excerpt from the *Bustan* ("The Orchard") by the 13th-century Persian poet Saadi of Shiraz, translated into English by A. Hart Edwards in 1911. The passage opens with an ornate theological prologue praising God's omniscience, mercy, and creative power, followed by a declaration of the Prophet Muhammad's supreme status among prophets. Saadi then provides a personal preface in which he frames the work as the spiritual fruit of his extensive travels across the medieval Islamic world, offering wisdom in place of material gifts to his readers. The book, completed in 655 AH (1257 CE), is organized around ten chapters ("doors") of moral and ethical instruction, and Saadi dedicates it to a patron, Abu Bakr ibn Sad, seeking to preserve both their memories through the permanence of verse. A notably self-aware moment comes when Saadi acknowledges the uneven quality of his own work, asking readers to judge the whole by its best lines and pardon the weak ones — comparing his verses to sugar-coated dates that conceal a hard stone inside.

The Bustan of Sadi: Prologue

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