Wise Sayings of the Persian Language on a Journey West: European Translations of Sa’dī’s Gulistān in the Seventeenth Century
Document Type : pajoohesh
Authors
10.22081/jap.2025.79052
Abstract
This article examines seventeenth-century translations of Gulistān by Sa‛dī, the celebrated Persian poet, into several European languages—including the French version by André du Ryer, the Latin translation by Georg Gentius, and the German versions by Friedrich Ochsenbach and Adam Olearius. Comprising brief moral anecdotes, wise sayings, proverbs, and mystical themes, the Gulistān played a central role in introducing Persian thought to European audiences in the early modern period and later exerted a profound influence on works such as Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan and Montesquieu’s Persian Letters.
Keywords
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