Sa'die

The Saadie is the Masai of Sa'di of Shiraz, a world-famous Persian poet, author of Bustan and Golestan, who became known as the "Master of the word" among the Iranians.

The mausoleum is located in the district "Sa'di", at 4 km north-east from the center of Shiraz, at the foot of Mount Fahandazh and near the Delgosha garden, in what was the place of residence of the last years of life of the poet. In the 13th century a sepulcher was built here on the orders of Khaje Shams-od-Din Mohamad Sahebdivani, minister of Abaqa Khan. This tomb was destroyed in 1589 by order of Yaqub Zolqadar governor of the Fars and was rebuilt in 1773 by decision of Kharim Khan Zand.

The primitive design of this building included two floors. The lower floor ended with a corridor, where the staircase leading to the second floor was located. On either side of this corridor there were two rooms with seating stands. Sa'di's tomb stood in the middle of a wooden balustrade in the eastern room. On the west side of the corridor there were two other rooms, in one of these was later buried Shuride (Fasih-ol-Molk) blind poet of Shiraz (XIX-XX century). The upper floor of the building was similar to the lower floor, except that no room was built above the eastern room that contained the tomb of Sa'di, so that the ceiling of that room reached a height of two floors. This building in the qajar period (1922) was restored by Fath Ali Khan Sahebdivan and after a few years Habibollah Khan Ghavam-ol-Molk had repairs done by entrusting the responsibility to Molla Zayno-ol-'abedin Shirazi. The mausoleum of Sa'di kept up to 1948 the architectural conformation that had been given to him at the time of Karim Khan Zand. In 1950 the National Heritage Association of Iran, on the initiative of Ali Asghar Hekmat, undertook the construction of the current mausoleum, which takes as its model the Chehel Sotun Palace. The construction was entrusted to the architect Mohsen Foroughi and the new building was inaugurated in the 1952.

The area of ​​the current mausoleum covers a surface of 10395 m2, while the surface of the building that serves as a mausoleum is about 257 m2. The entrance to the mausoleum area is located in the direction of the entrance to the tomb and was designed and built by the French architect André Godard. The mausoleum has a cubic shape with eight columns in front of the facade. The building includes two perpendicular loggias. The tomb of Sa'di is located in the corner between these two lodges. The interior of the building has an octagonal shape with marble walls and a domed blue ceiling. The sepulchral stone is located in the center of the building and is decorated with turkish majolica tiles. The eight internal sides of the building are adorned with eight inscriptions taken from the writings of Sa'di, the work of the calligrapher Ebrahim Buzari. The left side of the building is connected to the tomb of Shuride Shirazi through an eight-arched portico with black pavement whose walls have been decorated with calligraphy on dark blue tiles of some Shuride poems. In front of this portico there is a basin, where it is customary to throw a coin to see a wish fulfilled.

At the depth of 10 meters, under the courtyard of the mausoleum, there flows an underground channel whose water contains sulfur and mercury and which is poured into a tank known as the "fish tank". This tub has a surface of 30,25 m2 and is connected by 28 steps to the courtyard of the mausoleum. The tile decoration of this pool, which follows the style of the Seljuk era (11th-12th century), was designed and commissioned in the 1946 by Tirandaz. Above this basin there is an octagonal skylight and another two quadrangular skylights are on its two sides. Washing in the water of this canal is one of the current traditions among the people of Shiraz on the night party of chaharshanbe suri (feast of fires on the night of the last Wednesday of the year).

The Sa'di mausoleum is registered among the works of Iranian national heritage by the 1974.