Maslahu ’d-Din Shaykh Saadi was born, towards the close of the twelfth century, at Shiraz, the famous capital of Fars, concerning which city the Persians have the saying that “if Muhammed had tasted the pleasures of Shiraz, he would have begged Allah to make him immortal there.”  In accordance with the usual practice in Persia, he assumed as his takhallus, or poetical name,[1] Saadi, from his patron Atabag Saad bin Zingi, sovereign of Fars, who encouraged men of learning in his principality.  Saadi is said to have lived upwards of a hundred years, thirty of which were passed in the acquisition of knowledge, thirty more in travelling through different countries, and the rest of his life he spent in retirement and acts of devotion.  He died, in his native city, about the year 1291.

    [1] One reason, doubtless, for Persian and Turkish poets
        adopting a takhallus is the custom of the poet
        introducing his name into every ghazal he composes,
        generally towards the end; and as his proper name would
        seldom or never accommodate itself to purposes of verse
        he selects a more suitable one.

At one period of his life Saadi took part in the wars of the Saracens against the Crusaders in Palestine, and also in the wars for the faith in India.  In the course of his wanderings he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by the Franks, in Syria, and was ransomed by a friend, but only to fall into worse thraldom by marrying a shrewish wife.  He has thus related the circumstances: 

“Weary of the society of my friends at Damascus, I fled to the barren wastes of Jerusalem, and associated with brutes, until I was made captive by the Franks, and forced to dig clay along with Jews in the fortress of Tripoli.  One of the nobles of Aleppo, mine ancient friend, happened to pass that way and recollected me.  He said:  ’What a state is this to be in!  How farest thou?’ I answered:  ’Seeing that I could place confidence in God alone, I retired to the mountains and wilds, to avoid the society of man; but judge what must be my situation, to be confined in a stall, in company with wretches who deserve not the name of men.  “To be confined by the feet with friends is better than to walk in a garden with strangers."’ He took compassion on my forlorn condition, ransomed me from the Franks for ten dinars,[2] and took me with him to Aleppo.

    [2] A dinar is a gold coin, worth about ten shillings of our
        money.

“My friend had a daughter, to whom he married me, and he presented me with a hundred dinars as her dower.  After some time my wife unveiled her disposition, which was ill-tempered, quarrelsome, obstinate, and abusive; so that the happiness of my life vanished.  It has been well said:  ’A bad woman in the house of a virtuous man is hell even in this world.’  Take care how you connect yourself with a bad woman.  Save us, O Lord, from the fiery trial!  Once she reproached me, saying:  ’Art thou not the creature whom my father ransomed from captivity amongst the Franks for ten dinars?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered; ’he redeemed me for ten dinars, and enslaved me to thee for a hundred.’