Learn Persian through Saadi’s Golestan Syllabus

This course is about one of the greatest masterpieces of classical Persian literature, the Golestan of Saadi. The program pursues two primary goals. The first is to give students the necessary tools for their independent readings and studies of the Golestan through accurate and detailed readings of several meaningful and engaging stories from this book. The lessons will be accompanied by explanations of words and expressions, translations of the Arabic verses, etymological glimpses into the history of essential phrases, and cultural comments. The second goal is to get familiar with the Classical Persian language and its grammatical and phonological subtleties. As classical Persian has a significant number of grammatical points different from modern standard Persian, this introduction will serve as a good point of departure for further studies of the language of classical Persian literature.