SA'DI, Abu 'Abd Allah Musharrif al-Din.

Musladini Sadi rosarium politicum, sive amoenum sortis humanæ theatrum, de Persico in Latinum versum, necessariisque notis illustratum a Georgio Gentio.

Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1651. Small folio (320 x 200 mm), pp. [xx], 531; text in Latin and Persian on facing pages; small repair at foot of title (no loss, but affecting imprint), but a very good copy in contemporary vellum; from the library of the earls of Macclesfield. First complete edition of Sa‘di’s Gulistan or ‘Rose-garden’. André Du Ryer had published a partial French translation in 1634, but the present edition, prepared by the German orientalist Georgius Gentius, prints the complete text in the original Persian together with Gentius’s Latin translation. This copy is bound without Gentius’s Latin notes at the end, which is also the case with four (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Columbia, Göttingen, Newcastle) of the 14 located by OCLC.‘The Gulistan was completed in the same year [AD 1258] as the sack of Baghdad and the extinction of the Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols. Accomodation with those in power, a preternatural awareness of the vicissitudes of fortune, an extreme wariness of personal and political enemies, the frequent necessity to mask one’s true feelings, and the advice to be content with even indigent survival, far from centres of power and influence, are themes that are repeatedly stressed by the author. The epithet “Machiavellian” which has sometimes been applied to Sa‘di as a reproach is in many ways a valid characterisation, in that both Machiavelli and Sa‘di, writing in turbulent and potentially disastrous political circumstances, strove to provide advice that would ensure their audience’s successful negotiation of an exceptionally risky and faction-ridden world. The crucial difference is that, whereas Machiavelli writes directly to and for a central actor in such political upheavals, Sa‘di’s intended audience . . . would seem to be much more those on the sidelines of major events, hoping to survive by luck and their wits. Further, in Sa‘di’s case, to this “Machiavellian” preoccupation with survival must be added a strong sympathy for the vulnerable and weak . . . and a constantly reiterated plea for tolerance . . . . Perhaps in part because of their self-consciously “international” and unprovincial interests Sa‘di’s writings were highly influential . . . . His popularity in the Ottoman empire and Mughal India led to his name being known in the West at a relatively early period. French, German and Latin translations of parts of his oeuvre appeared in the mid-17th century, and Gentius brought out an edition of the Gulistan in 1651. The benevolence of Sa‘di’s usual sentiments and his frequent advocacy of irenic tolerance made him particularly attractive to Enlightement authors, and Voltaire pretended, tongue in cheek, that his Zadig was a translation from Sa‘di’ (Encyclopaedia of Islam).Brunet V 24.

• GBP 4,500.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: T2416

• librero: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)