The Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di

The Gulistan (Rose Garden), the timeless work of Sheikh Mosleh al-Din Sa'di of Shiraz, was written in 1258 CE in a musical, rhymed prose interlaced with verse. Sa'di arranged it in eight chapters, ranging from the conduct of kings and the manners of dervishes to the virtue of contentment, the etiquette of speech, and the art of education.

The Gulistan is a treasury of short anecdotes, each carrying a moral or a grain of practical wisdom. Sa'di was widely traveled — years on the road among many peoples gave his tales their depth and realism — and his prose is so assured and elegant that it served for centuries as the model of Persian writing.

Its most celebrated lines, "Human beings are members of one another, / created from a single essence," express a solidarity of humankind that won worldwide fame and became associated with the United Nations. This humane message has carried the Gulistan far beyond the borders of language and time.

For the diaspora reader, the Gulistan is a book that teaches both a language and a way of living; to read its tales is at once a literary pleasure and a re-schooling in the ethics that generations knew by heart.