''Baharestan'', (in Persian: بهارستان), (pronounced as ''Bahārestān'' or ''Bahaarestaan'') (meaning ''the land of spring'', ''the spring orchard'' or ''the spring garden''), is a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
book written by
Jami
Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī ( fa, نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی; 7 November 1414 – 9 November 1492), also known as Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti, or simply as J ...
that contains
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
. It has stories,
tales
Tales may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Tales'' (album), a 1995 album by Marcus Miller
* ''Tales'' (film), a 2014 Iranian film
* ''Tales'' (TV series), an American television series
* ''Tales'' (video game), a 2016 point-and-click adventure ...
and moral advice mainly in prose, but also in
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
. Baharestan is divided into eight
chapters, an introduction, and a final part. Each of its chapters is called a ''rowzeh'' (from
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
rawzah, meaning ''paradise'' or ''heaven''). Jami wrote this book in a year in the 9th century after
Muhammad's departure to Medina. In the introduction of Baharestan, Jami stated that he had written this book in the style of
Saadi Shirazi
Saadi Shīrāzī ( fa, ابومحمّد مصلحالدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (; fa, سعدی, , ), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (, ''Saʿdī Shīrāzī''; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was ...
's ''
Gulistan'' for his son who was ten years old at the time and was studying. Baharestan has content about
Sufism
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
and
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
. There are 469
verses of poetry in this book; 16 verses being in Arabic and the rest in Persian. Baharestan has
saj'
Saj‘ ( ar, سجع) is a form of rhymed prose in Arabic literature. It is named so because of its evenness or monotony, or from a fancied resemblance between its rhythm and the cooing of a dove. It is a highly artificial style of prose, characte ...
in its texts and the type of its prose is
rhymed prose Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in unmetrical rhymes. This form has been known in many different cultures. In some cases the rhymed prose is a distinctive, well-defined style of writing. In modern literary traditions th ...
; i.e. it is rhythmic. Each chapter in Baharestan has a specific topic; for example, in the seventh chapter, the topic is the life and the biography of some poets.
References
* Persian Wikipedia Contributors
بهارستان (کتاب) Persian. 19 September 2016; 15:47 (UTC). Translated to English from Persian by the creator of the page.
The World of Persian Literary Humanism
* ..
Sweet short stories from Jami's Baharestan - About This BookPermanent archived link
Alternative link
SID.ir , AN INVESTIGATION ON THE SOURCES OF THE ANECDOTES FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF JAMI’S BAHARESTANPermanent link
Britannica Guide to the Islamic World
بهارستان جامی (Persian)
Permanent archived link (alternative link with the date)
BAHĀRESTĀN (1) – Encyclopaedia IranicaBinary Oppositions in Baharestan by Jami - Tarbiat Modares University Journals System
15th-century books
Iranian books
Persian-language books
Sufi literature
{{Sufi-stub