Lot 194 SHAYKH MUSLIH AL-DIN SA'DI, GULISTAN, PERSIA, 18TH CENTURY
A Persian manuscript on paper, 124ff. with 11 lines per page written in nasta'liq script in black ink. Keywords and phrases are highlighted in red, with ruled gold and blue borders. The two opening bifolia feature a gold and polychrome illuminated headpiece. The manuscript contains various painted miniatures throughout, created in watercolor and heightened with gold. It is bound in brown morocco leather. 22 by 15 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'di, 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.