Selections from 'Gulistan'' (The Rose Garden/The Flower Garden) written in 1258 by Persian Muslim Abu Muṣliḥ bin Abdallah Shirazi, commonly known as Saadi:


The above is written on the entrance of the united Nations building in New York.

More Excerpts:

"A learned man who has got into an argument with the ignorant can have no hopes of supporting his own dignity; and if an ignoramus by his loquacity gets the upper hand it should not surprise us, for he is a stone and can bruise a gem. No wonder if his spirit flag; the nightingale is cooped up in the same cage with the crow.---If the man of sense is coarsely treated by the vulgar, let it not excite our wrath and indignation; if a piece of worthless stone can bruise a cup of gold, its worth is not increased, nor that of the gold diminished."

"Whoever does no good in the time of ability will see distress in the time of inability."

"Two men took useless trouble and strove without any profit, when one of them accumulated property without enjoying it, and the other learnt without practising what he had learnt.

However much science thou mayest acquire
Thou art ignorant when there is no practice in thee.
Neither deeply learned nor a scholar will be
A quadruped loaded with some books.
What information or knowledge does the silly beast posses
Whether it is carrying a load of wood or of books?"

"A scholar without diligence is a lover without money; a traveler without knowledge is a bird without wings; a theorist without practice is a tree without fruit; and a devotee without learning is a house without an entrance."

"Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste."

In Conclusion of the Book:

"The book of the "Gulistan, or Flower-Garden," has been completed through the assistance and grace of Allah, the Almighty. Throughout the work the custom of authors to insert verses from ancient writers by way of loan, has not been followed.


To adorn oneself with one's own rag
Is better than to ask for the loan of a robe.


Most of the utterances of Sa'di being exhilarant and mixed with pleasantry, shortsighted persons have on this account lengthened the tongue of blame, alleging that it is not the part of intelligent men to spend in vain the kernel of their brain, and to eat without profit the smoke of the lamp; it is, however, not concealed from enlightened men, who are able to discern the tendency of words, that pearls of curative admonition are strung upon the thread of explanation, and that the bitter medicine of advice is commingled with the honey of wit, in order that the reader's mind should not be fatigued, and thereby excluded from the benefit of acceptance; and praise be to the Lord of both worlds.


We gave advice in its proper place
Spending a lifetime in the task.
If it should not touch anyone's ear of desire
The messenger told his tale; it is enough.




O thou who lookest into it, ask Allah to have mercy
On the author and to pardon the owner of it.
Ask for thyself whatever benefit thou mayest desire,
And after that pardon for the writer of it.
If I had on the day of resurrection an opportunity
Near the Compassionate one I should say: 'O Lord,
I am the sinner and thou the beneficent master,
For all the ill I have done I crave for thy bounty.'


Gratitude is due from me to God that this book is ended Before my life has reached its termination."
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The Aghlabids Basins are huge water reservoirs built in the 9th century by Ahmed ibn muhammed of the Aghlabid dynasty outside the city walls of Al-Qayrawan. Al-Qayrawan (also known as Kairouan), the capital of Tunisia, North Africa, was one of the leading center of culture and learning during medieval period that attracted people from different parts of the world.

In Al-Qayrawan, alone, there were hundreds of water reservoirs to supply water to the towns, the many gardens and for irrigation purposes. One of the most famous water reservoirs were the the Aghlabids Basins - the remains of which are a tourist attraction today. These were basically two large basins; the smaller one 37.4m in diameter and the larger one having 128m diameter. Water was delivered from mountains located 36km west of the city, by an aqueduct, into the smaller seventeen-sided settling basin that had a capacity of 4000 cubic meters. This smaller basin filtered the water from debris before decanting it into the larger basin. The larger basin was the main reservoir with a holding capacity of 57000 cubic meters that was connected to a vaulted cistern for pumping purposes. More than 180 buttresses were used in these water basins.

References:

Islamic gardens and landscapes By D. Fairchild Ruggles
Museum with No Frontiers: http://www.museumwnf.org
Tunisia By Anthony Ham, Abigail Hole
Muqarnas, Volume 3: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture By Oleg Grabar