Background
Shabistari was born in the town of Shabestar near Tabriz in 1288 (687 Animal Husbandry), where he received his education.
Shabistari was born in the town of Shabestar near Tabriz in 1288 (687 Animal Husbandry), 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 seventeen queries concerning Sufi metaphysics posed to "the Sufi literati of Tabriz" by Rukh First Rate (at Lloyd's) Din Amir Husayn Harawi (d 1318).
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 later is his lone work of prose.