TEHRAN- The Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) will be hosting a session on Friday to celebrate Sadi, one of the giants of classic Persian poetry and literature.

During the event, which will be held at Shahnaz Hall of the IAF, Abdolmahmoud Rezvani, Abdolmehdi Mostakin, Ali Khodai, and Shahou Andalibi will deliver speeches and perform music based on Sadi's poems.

As one of the greatest figures of classical Persian literature, Sadi, the byname of Musharraf ad-Din ibn Muslih ad-Din, is famous worldwide for his Bustan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (The Rose Garden), which have been translated into many languages.

Iranians celebrate Sadi Day on 1st Ordibehesht in their national calendar. The day marks the anniversary of the completion of the Gulistan. 

Sadi was introduced to the generation of Iranians that are now in their fifties with the following verses at the primary school level:

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other 

Having been created of one essence. 

When the calamity of time afflicts one limb 

The other limbs cannot remain at rest. 

If thou hast no sympathy for the troubles of others 

Thou art unworthy to be called by the name of a man.

For Western students the Bustan and Gulistan have a special attraction; but Sadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist, and as the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience as well as particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. 

His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat (“Lyrics”) and his odes in Qasayed (“Odes”). Six prose treatises on various subjects are attributed to him; he is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humor and resignation displayed in Sadi’s works, together with a tendency to avoid difficult dilemmas, make him, to many, the most widely admired writer in the world of Iranian culture.

SAB/