Gulistan Illustrated: The Rose Garden

Completed in 1258, Gulistan ('The Rose Garden') contains wide-ranging stories, anecdotes and poems offering advice and reflections on human existence, love, governing, education, and the nature of freedom - just as a rose garden is a collection of flowers. Altogether the work contains some 595 short poems in Persian, consisting typically just under two couplets each. The stories are expressed in precise, minimalist language, providing psychological insight and wisdom. Considered Persia's most influential work from the classical age of Persian literature, Gulistan has been widely read from Bengal to Constantinople, and everywhere inbetween. In the modern era, the great works of Persian literature have become known throughout the world, and Gulistan is the supreme work in a tradition that values clarity, simplicity and elegance.