Author of the Gulshan-i Rāz (Garden of Mystery), the classic Sufi poem.
Šabistarī, Maḥmūd ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm, Šayḫ d. ca. 718/1318-720/1320–1
Persian mystic and writer, Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Yaḥyā Šabistarī (Šabustarī) was born at Šabistar close to Lake Urmiya and Tabrīz. Little is known of the events of his life. The exact date of his birth is unknown, though most likely having occurred during the mid to late 7th/13th century. According to the introduction to his Saʿādat-nāmah, a work no longer extant, Šabistarī traveled to Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz. Nonetheless, it is likely that he passed most of life in quietude at or nearby Tabrīz. The dates of Šabistarī’s death vary between 718/1318 and 720/1320–1. Buried next to his teacher Bahāʾ al-Dīn Yaʿqūb Tabrīzī at Šabistarī, his tomb has become a place of pilgrimage.