Much Have I Roamed through the World”

Persian literature has produced few poets who can rival Saʿdi. A powerful personality, an undisputed mastery of his art, a far-reaching influence, and an enchanting sense of humor are only a few on the long list of his widely accepted virtues. His critics have described his personality as “curious” and “captivating,” and his poetry as pure magic. As the undisputed master of eloquence he is commonly referred to as ustād-i sukhan by the lay and the expert alike. To these cherishing remarks one may easily add a multitude of others and yet they reflect little more than admiration. Curiously, the existing critical literature on Saʿdi offers little in the way of clarification or further exploration of these intriguing but ambiguous descriptions. One is tempted to ask why the “curious” and “captivating” personality of Saʿdi has not been the subject of separate studies. Along the same lines, how accessible is the personality of the poet through his poetry? Or more specifically, what would be the outcome of exploring his works in search of the way he envisioned himself? The present paper is a first step toward such an exploration in an attempt to deal mostly with this last question. If the major aim in any biographical study, as Nadel puts it, is to “discern the complexities of being without pretending that life's riddles have been answered” then much light could be shed on the complexities of Saʿdi's personality in this way

Admiration · Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Literature · MAGIC (telescope · Multitude · Personality · Poetry · Psychoanalysis · Reflexive pronoun · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Education and Islamic Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy · Psychology

• Beyond Orientalism

  Open Access•Julia Caterina Hartley•Iranian Studies•2019

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