GULISTAN OF SA'ADI, SAFAVID PERSIA DATED 987 AH/1579 AD

Persian manuscript on paper, each page with 13 lines written in black nasta'liq script, important words in red ink, ruled in gilt and polychrome borders, opening folio with gold and polychrome decoration.
Last page dated 987 AH/1579 AD, in brown leather morocco binding.
Paper: 9.5 by 15 cm.
Text: 5.5 by 11 cm.

The Rose Garden or Gulistan, is a landmark of Persian literature, perhaps its single most influential work of prose, written in 1258AD, it is one of two major works of the Persian poet Sa'adi, considered one of the greatest medieval Persian poets. It is also one of his most popular books, and has proved deeply influential in the West as well as the East. The Gulistan is a collection of poems and stories, just as a rose-garden is a collection of flowers. It is widely quoted as a source of wisdom. It is a moralistic and anecdotal work mostly written in hikayats (short prose vignettes) combined with verse. These are light and humorous in tone, particularly in comparison to his earlier work, the Bustan. The poet writes in the Gulistan’s epilogue that his aim was to deliver advice in palatable form.