The announcement coincided with events marking Sa’di ’s literary legacy on the fair’s closing day.

The Sarajevo International Book Fair, one of the region’s largest cultural gatherings, annually attracts more than 50,000 visitors and features over 200 exhibitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

The fair’s awards recognize outstanding achievements in various literary categories, including translations between Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, and other languages.

This year, the Bosnian edition of ‘Bustan’ —translated by Muammar Kudrich—received the top honor for translated works. The translation was produced through a collaboration between Iran’s Cultural Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina and local publisher Dubrovkinja, with support from the Center for Organizing the Translation and Publication of Islamic Knowledge and Humanities, part of Iran’s Cultural and Relations Organization.

The project is part of the ‘Translation of Persia (TOP)’ initiative, which aims to promote Persian literature in new languages.

Kudrich’s translation is the first complete Bosnian rendition of ‘Bustan’, based on the critical edition by Mohammad-Ali Foroughi. The translator sought to preserve the poem’s original structure and style as faithfully as possible.

In his introduction, Kudrich highlights Sa’adi’s enduring influence across the Islamic world, noting that ‘Bustan’ and ‘Golestan’ are among the most celebrated and widely published works of classical Persian literature.