a comparative study of saadi's golestan and johnson's rasselass

the research entitled “a comparative study of saadi’s golestan and samuel johnson’s rasselas” is based on the inclination of 18th century writer and theorist johnson on towards rich persian literature and outstanding resemblance of golestan and rassales from the structural, moral, philosophical points of view. the findings are based on two hypotheses: (1) has there been any basis for johnson’s specific attention to persian literature and if there has been any interest or familiarity with persian literature, how extensive or profound has it been? (2) with regard to the deep influence of the french neo-classicists on english neo-classicists in the 18th century, is there any possibility that, even johnson had an access to the english text of golestan. the present paper also comes up with noteworthy results representing this fact that the first feeling about the similarity between golestan and rasselas was not baseless. the evidence indicates that not only was johnson fascinated by arabic and persian literature (which europeans considered interchangeable) but also widely studied the translation of persian poets like saadi. the similarity between the two works has been so remarkable that it attracted the attention of some of persian and english scholars. however, the present project is intended to test and check the authenticity of this sense of similarity, to give it a second thought and to deal with it more consciously and seriously than it has experienced so far.