fatemeh keshavarz on sadi

7/29/2019 FATEMEH KESHAVARZ ON SADI

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"Much Have I Roamed through the World": In Search of Sadi's Self-ImageAuthor(s): Fatemeh KeshavarzSource: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Aug., 1994), pp. 465-475Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/163699 .

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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 26 (1994), 465-475. Printed in the United States of America

Fatemeh Keshavarz

"MUCH HAVE I ROAMED THROUGH THEWORLD": IN SEARCH OF SA'DI'S SELF-IMAGE

Persian literature has producedfew poets who can rival Sacdi. A powerful person-ality, an undisputed mastery of his art, a far-reachinginfluence, and an enchantingsense of humor are only a few on the long list of his widely accepted virtues. Hiscritics have described his personality as "curious"and "captivating,"and his po-etry as pure magic.' As the undisputed master of eloquence he is commonly re-ferred to as ustad-i sukhan by the lay and the expert alike. To these cherishingremarks one may easily add a multitude of others and yet they reflect little morethan admiration. Curiously, the existing critical literature on Sacdi offers little inthe way of clarification or furtherexploration of these intriguing but ambiguousdescriptions. One is tempted to ask why the "curious"and "captivating"personal-ity of Sacdi has not been the subject of separate studies. Along the same lines,how accessible is the personality of the poet throughhis poetry? Or more specifi-cally, what would be the outcome of exploring his works in search of the way heenvisioned himself? The present paperis a first step toward such an exploration inan attemptto deal mostly with this last question. If the majoraim in any biograph-ical study, as Nadel puts it, is to "discern the complexities of being without pre-tending that life's riddles have been answered"then much light could be shed onthe complexities of Sa'di's personality in this way.2Sacdi was not shy of makingspecific references to himself, unlike some otherpo-ets such as Baba Tahir (d. 1055-56) who opted for complete anonymityto assumethe personaof the selfless universal lover, free of geographicaland culturalattach-ments.3Neither did Sa'di's referencesto himself, as did those of Rumi (d. 1273), forexample, point to an elusive and restless being who was subject to constantchangeand thereforebelonged neither to the "East"nor to the "West,"to use Rumi's ownwords.4 As a biographicaltool, the self-descriptiveremarks of Rumi could be prob-lematic not only because of their general characterbut also on account of their de-liberate attempt to magnify the ephemeral and volatile aspect of his nature (andconsequentlythatof all humanbeings). Differently put, it is difficult to tie him to anyspecific time, place, or event long enough to permita searching glance. In completecontrast, Sacdi's allusions to himself are clear and specific, and of a remarkablyFatemeh Keshavarz is an Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature n the DepartmentofAsian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures,Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St.Louis, Mo. 63130, U.S.A.? 1994 Cambridge University Press 0020-7438/94 $5.00 + .00

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466 Fatemeh Keshavarzconsistent naturethroughouthis works. Admittedly,the wealth of informationavail-able here can be bewildering. Furthermore,t requiresa thorough knowledge of thehighly stylized modes of expression of the periodas well as familiaritywith the ge-neric conventions. Sa'di's allusions to himself, nevertheless,could be used in a cre-ative andreliablemanner o get glimpses of his vibrantpersonality.The questionthatfollows is how.In a brief study, and the only one of its kind, Fouchecour has sifted throughtwoof the major works of Sacdi, the Bustan and the Gulistan, in search of the poet'sself-descriptive remarks.5The article, which is entitled "Shaykh Sa'di az didgah-ikhvud-i u" (Shaykh Sacdi's Vision of Himself), is, in fact, a comprehensive list ofthe poet's moral qualities as articulatedby Sacdi himself. A second glance at thelist, however, reveals that it does not furnish us with many details peculiar toSacdi. That is to say, identical compendia of self-declared virtues, beginning witheloquence and wisdom and continuing with other comparable attributes such aslove for learning and candidness, can be easily produced for other Persian poetsbefore and after Sacdi. One might add that any sense of astonishmentat this seem-ing excess in self-praise in medieval Persianpoetry will be appropriatelymodifiedwith taking a step back to look at the larger picture. The use of self-congratulatoryremarkson the credentials of the poet could then be seen as a sanctioned genericconvention. This convention most probably functioned to enhance the effective-ness of ethical guidance put forwardin didactic as well as other thematic genres.Put in less technical terms, the value of the impartedwisdom depended, then asnow, primarily on how well it was practiced by the preacher. In the humorouswords of Hafiz (d. 1320), Kih waz-i bi-'amaldn wdjib ast nashanldan (For, thesermon of those who do not practice [the religion], it is a religious duty to ig-nore).6Whatever our explanation for the generic function of self-praise in medi-eval Persian poetry (incidentally, an interesting topic for futureresearch),one mayconclude with certaintythat compiling a list of self-declared virtues of Persianpo-ets will grantus little access to their self-image in the majorityof the cases.A completely different approachwould be to argue that any attemptto explorehow a poet envisioned himself will fall within the boundaries of what may betermed "psychological biography."The major question, then, will be how best toutilize works of literatureto reach a more vibrant,three-dimensional,closer-to-lifesketch of the writers of these works. The prospects here are encouraging. The ear-lier reluctance to consider writing biographical studies a creative literary task,which until recently prevented critics from deeming it a "proper"genre and theo-rizing about it, has given way to fresh approaches.More recent efforts emphasizethe artistic and seminal aspects of this nonfictional but creative prose writing. Forinstance, in additionto the formeremphasis on the factual and documentarynatureof biographical works, critics today acknowledge the value of "the linguistic ex-pression, narrativetechnique and mythical elements" that the biographeremploysto tell his story or depict his subject.7On a differentlevel, a majorbreakthrough sthe emphasis on the need to discern a patternor a repeated image that has a clearmetaphoricalquality in the works or the life of the subject. To locate such a pat-tern or master trope-which is then to serve as a unifying factor in the life of thesubject-is considered by some, like Nadel, as the main quest of a biographer.In-



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"Much Have I Roamed throughthe World" 467deed, Nadel values the availability of such a master trope to the extent of recom-mending that the biographerimpose one "from his own biases" if a "self-generat-ing" pattern does not originate out of the life-materials.8 The present essay willdemonstratethat in the case of Sacdi it is particularlybeneficial to employ such amaster trope to explore his personality, since at least one such majorpattern orig-inates out of the poet's life and is easily discernible in his language, whether figu-rative or referential.This master trope is traveling.Sacdi spent much of his life traveling or talking about it. This leitmotif, persis-tent throughouthis works, is not only developed throughnuance and repetitionbutis often associated with most significant situations and sentiments. As an extendedmetaphorit stands for the lasting human characteristics of endurance, wisdom, andexperience, while as fleeting imagery it alludes, among other things, to adventure,mundane love, and ecstasy. In either case, the person of Sacdi is present and ac-cessible in the nuances of emotion attached to this theme. This master trope was,therefore, chosen to be the focus of the present paper, for it is capable of bringinga vast and meaningful arrayof the poet's experiences together for examination. Itis hoped that in this process the personality of Sacdi, and in particularhis vision ofhimself, can be explored.Traveling did not have much significance in the literary life of most medievalPersianpoets. By and large, they were not great travelers. Between sayr-i afaiqandsayr-i anfus, "physical vs. spiritual journey," the majority seem to have favoredthe latter. Some, like Hafiz and Nizami, so rarely ventured a move from theirhometown that when they finally did, much legend was created around the purposeand the outcome of their journeys. Others were mostly forced to travel by warsand other social upheavals or the urge to find a more enthusiastic and generous pa-tron. Even then, hardly any accounts of these journeys figured in their poetry.9The pilgrimage to Mecca, enjoined on every eligible Muslim, inspired poetssuch as Nasir-i Khusraw (d. between 1072 and 1077) and Khaqani (d. 1199) toproduce celebrated literaryworks, the Safar'namah'0and the Tuhfatal-'Irdqayn,l11respectively. Although a numberof issues in these works, such as the wisdom andthe confidence of the traveler, his objectivity in observation, and attention to de-tail, particularly in the Safarlnamah, deserves much exploration, the events ofthese works hardly acquired the personal dimension necessary to make the pres-ence of the poet palpable for close examination.Sa'di, on the contrary, traveled far and wide and allowed the events of thesejourneys (factual and fictitious alike) to spill into his serious literary productions.He commented frequently on the activity of traveling, recommended wholeheart-edly sayr-i afdq along with sayr-i anfus, and, moreover, brought under scrutinythe many facets of the personality of the traveler. This keen investigation into thepsychology of the traveler is useful for our purpose. It is also indicative of Sa'di'sawareness of the metaphoric quality of the experience insofar as it defines, andgives expression to, the inner feelings of the traveler.Although one may find allu-sions to traveling in all of his works, in no other work does Sa'di come closer tohis traveler self than in the Gulistdn and the Buistn. 12Abu 'Abd Allah Musharrifal-Din ibn Muslih Sa'di was born in Shiraz some-time between 1213 and 1219, and he lost his fatheraround the age of twelve.13He



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468 Fatemeh Keshavarzbegan his studies in Shiraz but was driven to Baghdad by the terrorof the Mon-gols and the campaigns of the Khwarazmshahids.A multitude of legendary quali-ties and events, including a longevity of over 100 years and fourteenjourneys toMecca, have been attached to Sacdi's life by biographers such as Dawlatshah.'4What is certain, however, is that he studied in the Nizamiyya of Baghdad andsometime around 1226 set out on a journey that lasted at least thirty years. Uponhis return to Shiraz, in 1256, he composed the Bustan and the Gulistdn.5 It is thisset of journeys, as reflected in these works, that we are here concerned with.Sa'di's biographersdo not agree on the scope of his journeys. Some accept that,as he claimed in the Gulistdn and the Bustdn, he traveled eastward to India andwestward to Africa.'6 Others dismiss the possibility of his journeys to Kashgharand Somnat mentioned in the fifth chapter of the Gulistdn and the eighth chapterof the Buistdn,respectively. The Kashghar episode is open to doubt because itclaims a reputationfor the poet in that area that is unlikely to be substantiated forthat period. The Somnat episode, if taken as a factual report, presents an evenmore serious problem because it pictures Sacdi as the main protagonist, involvedin the murderof a Hindu priest. Additionally, Sacdi seems not to know the properlocation of Somnat because, according to the episode in question, he arrives in In-dia after he escapes from Somnat.'7By accepting the Biistdn and the Gulistan asprimarily ethical compendia, these historians are at a loss to deal with stories inwhich Sa'di is involved as the protagonist in not very ethical affairs. They arecaught between taking such events for facts and consequently having to explainthe grotesque personality that Sa'di appears to have had, or admitting that themaster might have occasionally let his imagination get away with a few inven-tions. EdwardBrowne chooses the first option, that is, taking all events mentionedin the Bustdn and the Gulistdn as factual, and explains away Sa'di's resultantmoral weaknesses in the following terms: "When Sa'di is described (as he oftenis) as essentially an ethical poet, it must be borne in mind that, correct as this viewin certain senses undoubtedly is, his ethics are somewhat different from theoriescommonly professed in Western Europe."'8Unfortunately, those who acknowledge the possibility of invention adopt anequally naive approach.They accept, for instance, that Sa'di could not have beenin Somnat, because otherwise he would have realized that it was, in fact, in In-dia.19On why he combined fact with fiction, however, they argue passionately thatSa'di was unaware of these inventions in the narrativebecause of his preoccupa-tion with the intricacies of the form. 'Abbas Iqbal says: "He has been so occupiedwith eloquence and rhetorical embellishment that his close attentionto the beautyof the form has preventedhim from distinguishing true from false."20Such accusa-tions of unawareness will not be necessary if the idea that the Buistdnand theGulistan are ethical compendia is appropriatelymodified. Jalal Matini'ssuggestionthat both of them be included in the genre of maqdmit certainly explains thefictional character of the narratives.21 Because the use of saj', the episodic struc-ture and the significance of wit and eloquence in these works correspond to thecommonly held description of maqamdt,22 Matini's suggestion merits serious con-sideration.23That Sa'di made major modifications in the example of Qazi Hamidal-Din Balkhi (d. 559), the author of the best known maqdmdtin Persian, how-



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"MuchHave I Roamedthroughthe World" 469ever, should be taken into account. Matini observes that, without these modifica-tions, Sacdi would not have enjoyed the measure of success that he did in utilizingmaqdma,a genre essentially unsuitable for the Persian language.24Sa'di himself chooses a more humorous way of alluding to the fictitious natureof his anecdotes in the first chapterof the Gulistan, where the travelerprotagonistof the story, who is to be punished for his lies, says to the king: "If thou hast heardheedless talk from thy slave, be not offended. A man who has seen the worldsutters much falsehood!" (p. 107). Or in Sacdi's more candid words, Jahian didahbisydr giuyadduriigh (p. 104).The verdict of the king who grants the stranger forgiveness for his honest con-fession is another humorous warning by Sacdi to his readers to understand andoverlook the occasional fiction or exaggeration that he has indulged in. After all,only a true traveler knows how necessary it is to let the trying events of a longjourney undergo a major reconstruction of the imagination before they are pre-paredfor the inexperienced ears of the city dwellers. It is also a warningthat noth-ing in the Bidstanand the Gulistan is to be taken literally.25WhetherSacdi traveled to Somnat or not, and whether he did or did not indulgein deliberate literary invention, everything that takes place in the Bustainand theGulistan is, for our purposes, real. For we are not concerned here with historicitybut rather with the measure of access that these events grant us to the way Sa'dienvisioned travelers-and, in many cases, by extension himself-as it comes tolight during these anecdotes. The example of the traveler who concocted stories,in fact, brings us to our first significant point: Sa'di closely identified with travel-ers and with those who do not belong to a place but ratherpass through it. Notstray and aimless passers-by, who have been cast adrift by accidental waves, butintelligent travelersin control of events, who plan their moves and whose presenceor absence makes a lasting impression not only on the host city, but even on thefate of the king who rules it. The kings are thus advised in the first chapterof theBustan:

Buzurganmusafir i-janparvarand Greatmen cherish he travelerwithverysoulKih nam-i nikFi! bi-'alam barand that he may carrya fair name to all the worldTabahgardad n mamlikatanqarib soonto ruin hatrealmcomeswhenceKaz ii khatir azurdahayad gharib. (p. 228) mind-afflicted comes the stranger. (p. 18)

Even more conspicuously, in the third chapter of the Gulistdn, a young athleteasks for the permission of his father to travel. In the father'sreply, five models fora successful traveler are described. The second model on the list is unmistakablySa'di himself:Duvvum,Calimikihbi-mantiq-ihirinva- Secondly,a scholarwho is for the pleas-quvvat-i fasahat va-mayah-'i balaghat har antness of his speech, the power of his el-ja ravad bi-khidmat-i u iqdam va-ikram oquence and the fund of his instruction,kunand. (p. 145) waited upon and honoured wherever hegoes. (p. 165)This leads us to our next observation. Not surprisingly, this wise and confidenttraveler, who is the maker of events, is captivated, deep down, by the irresistible,almost magical attractionof traveling. In the fifth chapterof Buistan:



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470 Fatemeh KeshavarzSafar nagahamzan zamin dar rubud.(p. 335) But all without warning, travel from thatland did carryme away. (p. 154)

As if underneathall the confidence and the wisdom, he is searching for a shield tohide behind, a world of anonymity and equality in which to lose himself, a kind ofoblivion not unlike death. The Biistdn and the Gulistdn are full of imagery com-mon to traveling and death such as darwdza-yi marg, "death's gateway," kiis-irihlat, "the drum of death," and the like. One may rightly argue that this much iscommon to all of medieval Persian poetry. What makes it peculiar to Sacdi, how-ever, is not the imagery itself but the positive and ratherentertainingnuance that itacquires in place of the usual emphasis it has on the shortness of life. In reality, orin his imagination, Sacdi enormously enjoyed appearingin disguise to observe theeffect of his poetry on its audiences, for like many people of high reputation, hemust have had a curiosity about how his work was judged in his absence.On the question of Sacdi's reputation,we have to be momentarilysidetracked tomake an observation. Many historians have argued that all of Sacdi's fame camewith the composition of the Bustan and the Gulistdn so he could not have been awell-known poet during his travels.26This suggestion does not sound all that per-suasive. The assumption that Sacdi composed no ghazals prior to the above worksand turned into ustdd-i sukhan all at once is a curious one. Sa'di himself certainlyclaims otherwise in the dibdchah to the Gulistdn when he talks of "the good repu-tation of Sacdi which is current among the people, the renown of his eloquencewhich has spread on the surface of the earth . . . and the scraps of his literary com-positions which are hawked about like bills of exchange" (p. 60). Claims likethese could not be made in vain when the contemporariescould easily detect theirfalsehood. In addition, external evidence shows that Sacdi's reputation had trav-eled at least as far as Konya decades before his death.27Therefore, the assumptionthat Sacdi enjoyed some reputationin some of the places he traveled to cannot betoo far removed from the truth.Whether his reputation was substantial during his travels, whether he met ayoung admirerin Kashghar, and whether he got entangled in a disputation withscholars who did not recognize him at first (as reportedin the fourthchapterof theBuistdn),or whether all this was a figment of his imagination, it is obvious that, tohim, one of the luxuries that travel offered was anonymityand the possibility of ob-serving without being observed. If he chose to, he could finally let the commonpeople see a glimpse of his genius, disappear,and leave them dumbfoundedthink-ing "who else could he have been but Sacdi." This is exactly what happens whenhe leaves after the disputation with the scholars:Naqib az payash raft u har su david The beadle set out after him, runningevery whichwayKih mardi bi-din na't u suratkih did? Asking who had seen a man of hisdescription and appearanceYaki guft az in nau' shirin'nafas Said one; of sweet-breathedmen like that,Dar in shahrSa'di shinasim u bas (p. 315) I know but one in this whole town, andthat is Sacdi. (p. 130)Another attractionof traveling for Sacdi was undoubtedly in the challenges thatit presented, challenges that were at once mental, physical, and spiritual. A trav-



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"MuchHave I Roamedthrough the World" 471eler was, for instance, expected to resist temptationsof involvement in adventuresharmfulto his journey's ultimate goals. At the same time, he needed to exhibit pa-tience and endurancein the event of an unfriendly encounter in a host city. Simi-larly, he had to put his physical strengthto the test in the face of excessive hunger,thirst, and other problems presented by nature. We in the present century have aratherdifferent idea of traveling. In Sacdi's times, needless to say, this activity re-quired more than a ticket and a place of destination. Those who made the mistakeof not realizing the dangerpaid dearly for their ignorance. In this chaotic world ofadventures, no possibility was to be completely ruled out. One could be forcedinto marriagewith the ugly daughterof a self-appointed friend, one's trusted fel-low travelercould turnout to be a thief in disguise (as in the second chapterof theGulistan), or, worst still, one could be accused of spying in a God-forsaken landwhere the locals could go so far as to put one in a closet and "wall up the aperturewith mud bricks," an ordeal that could last as long as two weeks before the inno-cence of the traveler is proved. This is what happens to the two Khurasani der-vishes, one of whom is weak and the other strong, in the third chapter of theGulistdn:

Qazara bardar-ishahribi-tuhmat-iasulsi It happenedhattheywerecaptured t thegiriftar madand. gateof a townon suspicionof beingspies;Hardiirfa i-khanah'i ardand a-dar whereoneach of them was confined n abi-gilbaravardand.p. 135) closet andtheaperturef it walledupwithmudbricks. p. 151)The traveler, herefore, s not to be takenlightly. Afterall, he is thechampionof thisworld of unpredictedadventures n which adventurisms only one of the qualitiesnec-essary for survival. The opposite is true, too. The personalityof those who have nottraveled leaves somethingto be desired.Not only is the young warrior n the seventhchapterof the Gulistdn,afteryearsof preparation ndtraining,unable to puthis skillsto the test because he is mutana"im va-parvardahas opposed to jahan'didah wa-safarPkardah,but even the hermit fromDamascus, in the second chapterof the samework, loses all his spiritualmerits as a resultof giving in to the comforts of city life.Against this background, the pride that Sa'di takes in his own journeys makes

more sense. It becomes more understandablewhy he does not fail to specify thelocation of an event even when it seems to be of secondary or no relevance to thestory. There are at least twenty-five such references in the Bistdn and the Gulistdnas well as many more allusions to his journeys to remote lands that remained un-named. The benefits to be gained by traveling explain why Sa'di, at times, recom-mends this activity in much the same way that a physician prescribes a bittermedicine: for the cure that follows rather than the pleasure of the action itself:Zi zulmatmatars y pasandidaust Fearnot thedark, steemedriend,Kihmumkin uvadki-ab-ihayvandaruist For ivingwatermay ie thereinNahgiti pasazjunbish ramyaft? Aftercommotion, asnot the world oundrest?Nah Sa'disafarkard a kamyaft? p. 532) DidnotSa'ditravel ill he foundhisdesire?(p. 176)Despite Sa'di's emphasis on the educational merits of traveling, he does not ap-pear to have traveled in pursuit of a specific teacher. Rather, he seems to have



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472 Fatemeh Keshavarzviewed his own journeys as education of a practical nature complementing hisscholastic training. In particular,he takes pride in having spent time with peopleof various backgrounds and persuasions. As a result, he rightly claims in the dl-bachah to the Biustdn,"from every harvest I have gained a corn-ear."

Dar aqsa-yi 'alam bigashtam basi Much have I roamedthroughthe world's farquartersBi-sar burdamayyam ba har kasi Spending my days with all and sundry;Tamattu' bi-har gushah-'i yaftam EnjoymentI have found in every nook,Zi har kharmani khushah-'i yaftam Fromevery harvest I have gained a(p. 220) corn-ear. (p. 8)Whether planned for learning purposes or not, there is little doubt that Sacdi's

journeys are the prime source of his insight into human psychology as well as hisability, rare for his time, to see benefit in diversity and difference. He clearly pre-fers to live in and benefit from a world colored with disagreement and quest forlearning than a dull and homogeneous world that submits to one persuasionblindly. The wise man who arrives from a journey over the sea of CUmman, andwhose knowledge and wisdom are a synthesis of Muslim and non-Muslim learn-ing, acquired through mixing with a variety of peoples all over the world, is clearlySacdi's personification of an ideal wise man:

Zi darya-yi CUmmanbaramadkasi From Oman sea there came a man, muchSafar kardah hamin ii daryabasi traveled by ocean and desert,CArab idah u Turku Tajik u Rum Arab he'd seen, and Turks, Persians andByzantinesZi harjins dar nafs-i pakash 'lum From every race his pure soul had learnedits scienceJahangashtah u danish andukhtah World-Wandered,wisdom he'd amassed:Safar kardahu suhbatamukhtah(p. 230) Traveled, he'd learned sociability. (p. 21)

This CUmmani character in the first chapter of the Biistan is the closest that we canget to an existing self-image or an ideal toward which the poet has been striving.Whichever we choose to accept, Sacdi's own awareness of the diversity of theworld and the complexity of human nature, reminiscent of his CUmmani scholar,is detectable in his assessment of good and evil. In the Bustdn and the Gulistdnabsolute good and bad do not rule the world. Nothing is completely black andwhite, and there is pleasure as well as benefit in exploring the shades in between.Traveling, for instance, is a most beneficial activity, but even the traveler may betraveling for the wrong reasons. He may be so blinded by pursuit of material gainthat he completely loses sight of the pleasures he may discover in seeing theworld. A good example is the greedy merchant in the oasis of Kish who "pos-sesses one hundred and fifty camel loads of merchandise with forty slaves, andwho invites Sacdi to his quarters one evening" to spend the whole night enumer-ating the goods that he is planning to buy in each city on his route and sell in thenext. He sounds like a sleep-talker, has been everywhere but has seen nothing,and although he tries hard to anticipate a point at which he would retire from end-less journeys of trade, as Sa'di observes, his ailment may have no other cure butdeath:



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"Much Have I Roamedthroughthe World" 473An shanidasti kih dar aqsa-yi GhiurBar'salaribi-uftad az suturGuft: chashm-i tang-i dunyai dust raiYa qanacat pur kunad ya khak-i gur(p. 142)

Thou mayest have heardthat in the plain of GhurOnce a leader fell down from his beast of burden,Saying: the narroweye of the wealthy manWill be filled either by content or by the earth ofthe tomb. (p. 161)

Between the traveler who returnsfrom his journeys a saintly wise man and theone who is gripped by monomania of material gain, there are gradations:normalfolks, ordinarytravelers. Interestingly enough, the ordinarytraveler has his weak-nesses too. He feels like a sick person who would only be cured with a drink ofwater from his native town, from time to time. In addition, he is often accused ofcarelessness and instability:Safar'kardagan aubali ziyandKih parvardah-'imulk u daulat nayand(p. 232)

Who've traveled much live carelesslyNot by realm and empire nurtured hey.(p. 23)An envious vizier accuses a wise traveler in chapter 1 of the Bustan. Sacdi agreeswith this accusation at least in one incident, in the sixth bdb from the Bustdn:

Sukuni bi-dast avar ay bi-sabatKih bar sang-i gardan nartuyad abat(p. 344)

Acquire of rest a measure, you who lackstabilityFor herbage will not grow upon a rollingstone. (p. 166)Sacdi has had ethical points to make in composing the Bustan and the Gulistan.Nevertheless, these works, if taken only as dry moral lessons, completely lose theirspirit. The key to Sacdi's world is to understand his ever-present sense of humor.Whethertalking about strangerswho can freely lie, travelerswho get locked up ina closet, or marriagesthat are worse thancaptivity, Sacdi teaches the readeralwaysto be preparedfor a smile. This underlyinghumorous tone is present in the poet'sother works, too. Skalmowski is most probablyreferringto the same thing when hetalks about "a joke-like combination of interconnectedimages" in the ghazals ofSa'di.28It would be regrettableto close this discussion without referringto Sacdi's most

outstanding quality, namely his pragmatism, in relation to travel. Sacdi devotedmuch of his attention to simple daily matters in life, a quality he did not sharewith many of his contemporaries.MahmudShabistari and Fakhral-Din 'Iraqi, forinstance, were engaged in highest levels of mystical speculation in the Gulshan-irdz and the Lamacdt,while Sacdi busied himself with "the cat who learned con-tentment,""the old man who could not bear the gayness of the youths," and "theprince with a dislocated neck."It is no wonder then that in Sacdi's life sayri-i afaq (physical journey) took pre-cedence over sayr-i anfus (spiritualjourney). For a man of such practical mental-ity, it is only too fitting to actually go out in search of his ideals as opposed toseeking them in seclusion. And isn't he saying the same thing in the second chap-ter of the Bistdn in the story of the man who had lost his son in a journey?

Yaki ra pisar gum shud az rahilaShabangah bi-gardid dar qafilaA man once lost his boy while in a convoyat nightfall he wandered round the caravan



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474 Fatemeh KeshavarzZi har khayma pursid u har su1 hitaftBi-tariki ainraushanfa'ibi-yfaftChiuamad bar-i mardum-ikarivanShanidamkih miguft ba sarivan

And exclaims the joyous father:Nadainikih chun rah burdam bi-dust?Har an kas kih pish amadamguftam"ust"Az an ahl-i dil dar pay-i har kasandKih bashadkih rfuzibi-mardi rasandBarand az bara-yi dili bar'haberedKhurandaz bara-yi guli khar'ha.(p. 286)

asking at every tent and hastening in alldirectionsat length he found that brightness in the darkWhen to the caravan's members he returnedI heard him saying to the convoy leader:

know you how I came across my friend?whoever came before me I said "It's him!"this is why men of heartpursueone and allthat they may one day reach a man perchancefor one heart they will carry loads unnum-for one rose's sake they swallow many thorns.(p. 92)

NOTES1JanRypka, History of Persian Literature, trans. P. Van Popta-Hope (Dordrecht,Holland: D. Rei-del, 1968), 250.2IraBruce Nadel, Biography: Fiction, Fact and Form (New York: St. Martin'sPress, 1984), 153.3Rypka,History of Persian Literature,234.4Ibid., 240-42.5Charles-Henride Fouchecour, "Shaykh Sa'di az didgah-i khvud-i u" in Zikr-i Jamil-i Sacdi: Col-lected Articles and Poems for the Commemorationof the 800th Birth Anniversary of Sheikh Sacdi, 3vols. (Tehran: National Commission of Unesco in Iran and Ministry of Islamic Guidance, 1987),3:131-41.6Hafiz,Divdn-i Hdfiz-iShirazi, ed. MuhammadQazvini and Qasim Ghani (Tehran:Nashr-i Tuli',1982), 282.7Nadel, Biography, 151. For other interesting works concerning the more recent approaches to bi-ography, see Gail PorterMandell, Life into Art: Conversations with Seven Contemporary Biographers(Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991); idem, Studies in Biography, ed. Daniel Aaron(Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1978).8Nadel, Biography, 158.9A well-known example of a poet traveling in search of a proper patronis the case of Farrukhi(d.1037-38) who "from being in the service of a dihgan came via the court of Chaghaniyanto Ghazna,where he sang the praises of Mahmud,"Rypka, History, 176.'?ZabihAllah Safa, Tdrikh-iAdabiyydtdar Iran (Tehran:Intisharat-iFirdaws, 1987), 2:893-989.1Ibid., 776-83.12For nformation on various editions and translations of the Gulistan and the Biistdn, see John D.Yohannan, The Poet Sacdl: A Persian Humanist (New York: University Press of America, 1987), 1-16. For Persian quotations from the Bustan and the Gulistan the following has been used: Kulliydt-iShaykh Sa'di, ed. MuhammadCAliFurughi (Tehran: MuisaCIlmi, 1959). For English quotations fromthe Biistan and the Gulistan, see Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned: The Biistan of Sa'di, trans. G. M.Wickens (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974); The Gulistan or Rose Garden of Sacdi, trans. Edward Rehatsek(New York: G. P. Putnam'sSons, 1965).13Rypka,History of Persian Literature, 250-53; for a more detailed account, see Henri Masse, Es-sai sur le poete Saadi (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1919).14JalalMatini, "Maqamah-'imanzum bi-zaban-i Farsi,"Irdn Ndmah 3 (1985): 706. For a compre-hensive and critical review of biographicalworks on Sacdi, see MuhammadMuhit Tabataba'i,"Nukatidar Sarguzasht-iSa'di" in Zikr-iJamil-i Sacdi, 3:185-211.



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"Much Have I Roamed throughthe World" 475'5Rypka, History of Persian Literature, 250.16Inaddition to the works which all discuss Sa'di's travels, for specific treatment of the subject, see

John Andrew Boyle, "The Chronology of Sacdi's Years of Travel," in Islamwissenschaftliche Abhand-lungen: Fritz Meier zum sechzigsten Geburtstag, ed. R. Gramlich (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag,1974), 1-8; Hasan Nishat Ansari, "Did Shaykh Sa'di Visit India?"Journal of the Bihar Research So-ciety 59 (1973): 173-86; Ahmedmian Akhtar, "Sa'di's Visit to Somnat," Islamic Culture 8 (1934):212-21; Edward G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia: From Firdawsi to Sacdi (New York:CharlesScribner'sSons, 1906), 528-29, accepts that Sacdi traveled eastwards to India and westwards to Africa.17Browne, Literary History, 529.1tIbid.,530.19Ansari,"Did Shaykh Sa'di Visit India?," 185-86.20cAbbas qbal, "Zaman-i Tavallud va Ava'il-i zindagani-i SaCdi,"Majallah-i Taclimwa-Tarbiyat(Bahman wa Isfand 1937): 636.2tMatini, "Maqamah-'i manzumbi-zaban-i Farsi,"716-20.22A.F. L. Beeston, "al-Hamadhani,al-Hariri and the maqdmatGenre,"in Cambridge History of Ar-abic Literature: 'Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed. Julia Ashtiany et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1990), 135.23One can briefly note here that other generalizations and unquestionednotions of generic functionin Persian poetry call for serious modification. Panegyric poetry, for instance, long taken as a symptomof social moral decay and an instrument of materialgain is shown, in the light of more recent studies,to have had a more complex and significant function. In the case of Sacdi, this is well demonstratedbyBarat Zanjani'sanalysis of the panegyric qasida written for Atabak. See BaratZanjani, "Sukhanwari-izirakainah ar Qalamraw-i Sacdi" in Zikr-iJamil-i Sacdi, 2:197-208.24Matini,"Maqamah-'i manzuimbi-zaban-i Farsi,"717-18.25AshrafAbu Turab Zia Sardar,A Time to Speak: Anecdotesfrom Sacdi Shirazi (Leicester: IslamicFoundation, 1976), 2.26Rypka,History of Persian Literature, 250.27MujtabaMinuvi, "Zikr-ijamil-i Sacdi," Yaghmd3 (1952): 97-102.28WojciechSkalmowski, "Notes on the Ghazals of Sacdi and Hafiz," Orientalia Lovaniensia Peri-odica 10 (1979): 273.

fatemeh keshavarz on sadi

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