Shabestari
Mahmoud Shabestari or Mahmūd Shabestarī (‎ 1288–1340) is one of the most celebrated Persian Sufi poets of the 14th century.
Also recorded as Mahmud Shabistari · Mahmoūd Shabestarī · Mahmoud Shabestari
Shabestari
Jafar Tabrizi · Public domain
- Occupation
- poet · writer · mystic
- Fields
- Sufism · Iranian poetry
- Known for
- Gulshan-i Raz
- Languages
- Persian · Iranian
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 111915510X · wikidata · Q2738287 · wikipedia · Mahmoud Shabestari
In this article
Life and work
Life and work
• Illustration — Manuscript of Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn 'Ali al-Gilani's (died 1505) commentary on Shabestari's Sharh-e gulshan-e-raz. Copy created in Qajar Iran, dated 20 May 1882 Shabestari was born in the town of Shabestar near Tabriz in 1288 (687 AH), where he received his education. He became deeply versed in the symbolic terminology of Ibn Arabi. He wrote during a period of Mongol invasions. His most famous work is a mystic text called The Secret Rose Garden (Gulshan-i Rāz) written about 1311 in rhyming couplets (Mathnawi). This poem was written in response to fifteen queries concerning Sufi metaphysics posed to "the Sufi literati of Tabriz" by Rukh Al Din Amir Husayn Harawi (d. 1318). It was also the main reference used by François Bernier when explaining Sufism to his European friends (in: Lettre sur le Quietisme des Indes; 1688) Other works include The Book of Felicity (Sa'adat-nāma) and The Truth of Certainty about the Knowledge of the Lord of the Worlds (Ḥaqq al-yaqīn fi ma'rifat rabb al-'alamīn. The former is regarded as a relatively unknown poetic masterpiece written in khafif meter, while the latter is his lone work of prose.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1287
Shabestari born at Shabestar.
1320
Shabestari died at Tabriz.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Shabestar.
Birth place
Tabriz.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2738287: Shabestari
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 111915510X, Shabestari, Seyed Sina.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
reference work
- “Mahmoud Shabestari”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Mahmoud Shabestari, revision 1354177396 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Leonard Lewisohn, C. Shackle, "ʻAṭṭār and the Persian Sufi tradition: the art of spiritual flight", I.B. Tauris, 2006. p. 40
- 2.Jon Robertson, "Fire and light: an off-road search for the spirit of God", Celestial Arts, 2006. p. 206: "The great thirteenth-century Persian Sufi poet Mahmud Shabistari"
- 3.Gai Eaton, "Islam and the destiny of man", SUNY Press, 1985. p. 53: "According to the Persian poet Mahmud Shabistari: "The Absolute is so nakedly apparent to man's sight that it is not visible"
- 4.Lewisohn (1995) p. 8
- 5.Lewisohn (1995) p. 1
- 6.Lewisohn (1995) p. 21
- 7.Lewisohn (1995) p. 24/39
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q2738287: ShabestariWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 111915510X, Shabestari, Seyed Sina.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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