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Mahmoud Shabestari orMahmūd Shabestarī (Persian:محمود شبستری; 1288–1340) is one of the most celebratedPersian[1][2][3]Sufipoets of the 14th century.[4]
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Shabestari was born in the town ofShabestar nearTabriz in 1288 (687 AH), where he received his education.[5] He became deeply versed in the symbolic terminology ofIbn Arabi. He wrote during a period ofMongol invasions.
His most famous work is a mystic text calledThe Secret Rose Garden (Gulshan-i Rāz) written about 1311 in rhyming couplets (Mathnawi). This poem was written in response to fifteen queries concerning Sufimetaphysics posed to "the Sufi literati of Tabriz" by Rukh Al Din Amir Husayn Harawi (d. 1318).[6] It was also the main reference used byFrançois Bernier when explaining Sufism to his European friends (in:Lettre sur le Quietisme des Indes; 1688)
Other works includeThe Book of Felicity (Sa'adat-nāma) andThe 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 inkhafif meter, while the latter is his lone work of prose.[7]
