Lectures by renowned scholars Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush and Robert Abdul Hayy Darr on the life and poetry of Saadi followed by a musical performance by Sarbang Ensemble based on Saadii’s poetry in Persian with English translations and explanations.
Sarbang Ensemble - Sirvan Manhoubi: Composer & Oud player, Abolhassan Mokhtabad: Singer & Director, Joshua Mellinger: Percussion, Basma Edrees: Violin, Misha Khaliklov: Cello, Ava Nazar: Piano
Tickets Purchased by 2/6/20: $15 General Public, $10 Students
Tickets Purchased after 2/6/20: $20 General Public, $15 Students
Date: Saturday, February 8, 2020, 5:30-7:30 PM
Location: 1433 Madison St, Oakland, CA 94612
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“Adam's children are members of the same body, Created from one essence.
If fate brings suffering to one member, The others cannot stay at rest.
You who remain indifferent To the burden of pain of others, Do not deserve to be called human.”
Saadi’s Bai Adam Poem, the poem is inscribed on a large hand-made carpet installed in 2005 on the wall of a meeting room in the United Nations building in New York
Abdolkarim Soroush
Dr. Soroush is one of Iran’s most eloquent lecturers and orators, and one of the foremost authorities on Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz, and general Persian Sufi thought and teachings. As a multifaceted visionary scholar, innovative thinker, philosopher, religious reformer, poet, and translator he has received much recognition from many acclaimed institutions of higher learning and a lot of attention from the world media. In 2004 he received the Erasmus Award in Amsterdam, in 2005 he was named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s most influential people. In 2008 he was named by Prospect Magazine as one of the world’s most influential intellectuals. In 2009, based on a public poll, Foreign Policy Magazine ranked him number 45 of 100 world’s elite intellectuals and global thinkers. Dr. Soroush has also taught as a visiting professor at many prestigious universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and the Leiden-based International Institute.
Robert Abdul Hayy Darr
Mr. Darr has for forty years been a student of classical Islamic culture. In the 1970s he studied North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California, and by the early 1980s he was studying Persian poetry. In 1987 he met Afghanistan’s poet laureate in exile, Ustad Khalilullah Khalili, and this friendship led to Darr’s English translation of the poet’s quatrains in 1988. In 1989 he began the study of Persian miniature painting with Ustad Homayon Etemadi, Afghanistan’s last court painter and royal librarian, who was also his tutor of Persian literature. In 1992, Darr met the Afghan Sufi, Raz Mohammad Zaray, with whom he studied spirituality until Ustad Zaray’s death in 2010.
Saadi Shirazi
Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdullah Shirazi, Saadi Shirazi was one of the prominent Iranian poets of the medieval period. He was born in 1184, and died in 1283 or 1291 in Shiraz, Iran [1]. Due to the Mongolian invasion of Iran, especially Khwarizm and Persia, Saadi was displaced by the ensuing conflict thus beginning a 30 year journey. Saadi is recognized for the quality of his writings, and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.
The Gulistan (Rose Garden) and Bustan (Orchard) of Saadi Shirazi are two classics of his works that provide the moral and ethical basis of reading for millions. Saadi visited the centers of learning of the Islamic world and wrote poetry and literature which has not been surpassed. He was educated in Baghdad at the great college founded by Nizam al-Mulk (AD 1018-1092), the friend of Omar Khayyam (AD 1048-1131) and Minister of Court of the King. Saadi’s influence on European literature is considerable. He is one of the groups whose writings gave substance to the Gesta Romanorum, sourcebook for many Western legends and allegories. Scholars have traced many of Saadi’s influences on European literature such as that of Germany.
The Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Saadi contains traditional Persian texts, short stories, and short poems that encourage people to be kind to human beings and empathize with the feelings of their counterparts. The Bustan (Orchard) is another collection of Saadi’s works which consists of rhythmic Persian poems. Saadi’s poems in Orchard and his short stories in Rose Garden emphasize on being kind and compassionate. Saadi considers empathy as an essential quality in humans’ behavior. He invites people to be peaceful and forgiving, considering that people would learn to be honest and change for the better if they were treated well.