Social Stratification and Negation of Ethnocentrism in Saadi’s Gulistan and Bustan

Abstract

Social stratification, formation of various classes and appearance of various layers in the society is a fact resulting from social conditions of public life and a wide variety of material, economic and subsistence factors as well as political situation, religious beliefs and public customs and thoughts; also ethnic divisions play an essential and undeniable role in this field. Greed and covetousness of the worldly-minded people increasingly widens the distance between the rich and the poor and causes deep gaps between social classes and exacerbates the differences between poor and rich classes. Saadi Shirazi drew the picture of inequality between upper classes of the society and middle and lower ones, increasing gap between various layers of the society and inequality between human groups as a tangible and visible fact through stories of Bustan and Gulistan and criticized the social conditions as a skilful critique and expressed his dissatisfaction with increased injustice and inequality. In his works, Sheikh of Shiraz, Saadi, explained and illustrated intrinsic characteristics and social behaviour of humankind and various classes of the society in a way that if he has addressed people of all ages and because of the same reason, he is considered as the most insightful poet and the most social Persian literature scholar and his words always feel fresh and effective and the impact of his exalted thoughts and high goals and deep influence of his words on national cultures and people's hearts all over the world are known to all.