SANA'I

died 1131?, Ghazna [now Ghazni], Afg. pseudonym of Abu al-Majd Majdud ibn Adam, also spelled Abu'l-Majd Majdud ibn Adam Persian poet, author of the first great mystical poem in the Persian language, whose verse had great influence on Persian and Muslim literature. Little is known of Sana'i's early life. He was a resident of Ghazna and served for a time as poet at the court of the Ghaznavid sultans, composing panegyrics in praise of his patrons. At some point he underwent a spiritual conversion and, abandoning the court, went to Merv (near modern Mary, Turkmenistan), where he pursued a life of spiritual perfection. He returned to Ghazna years later but lived in retirement, resisting the blandishments of his Ghaznavid patron Bahram Shah. Sana'i's best-known work is the Hadiqat al-haqiqah wa shari'at at-tariqah (The Garden of Truth and the Law of the Path). Dedicated to Bahram Shah, this great work, expressing the poet's ideas on God, love, philosophy, and reason, is composed of 10,000 couplets in 10 separate sections. The first section was translated in English as The Enclosed Garden of Truth (1910). Sana'i's work is of major importance in Persian-Islamic literature, for he was the first to use such verse forms as the qasidah (ode), the ghazal (lyric), and the masnavi (rhymed couplet) to express the philosophical, mystical, and ethical ideas of Sufism (Islamic mysticism). His divan, or collected poetry, contains some 30,000 verses.