Poet and artist meeting across time and space

Two hundred and thirty years before Bihzad started to work on his painting in the city of Herat, the poet Saʿdi finished his Bustan in the city of Shiraz. Shiraz lies 1500 kilometres from Herat, where Bihzad had his studio in the palace of Sultan Husayn Bayqara. Today, Shiraz is still famous for its poets from the past, and Saʿdi’s mausoleum is one of its major tourist attractions.

The Bustan, literally “Orchard,” is a book in verse, full of morals and good advice, handy for both kings and commoners. Its moralistic messages are vividly illustrated with stories and anecdotes, many of which had been circulating already in a wide variety of sources. They struck a chord with Saʿdi’s audience, but also with audiences many centuries later.

In the Bustan chapter on repentance and shame, a snippet of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha is included by way of example or anecdote. We see this in the painting too: the vignette with a black floral background and gold letters in the upper right corner of the painting says hikayat-i yusuf-u zulaykha– “the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha.” In the Bustan, the story is only nine verses long and it starts with the following verse: translation from:Morals Pointed and Tales Adorned. The Būstān of Saʿdī. Translated by G.M. Wickens. Leiden: Brill, 1974, 236

Zulaikhā, drunk with the wine of love,
Hung by the hand on Joseph’s skirts