Nezami Ganjavi
نظامی گنجوی
The master of the Persian verse romance, whose Khamsa gave the world Layli and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin.
- Known for
- The Khamsa (Quintet)
- Forms
- Masnavi
- Places
- Arran and Shirvanاران و شروان
- Collection
- The Greats
Nezami spent almost his whole life in Ganja, in today's Azerbaijan. His Khamsa, or Quintet, is a set of five long narrative poems in couplets, among them the love stories of Khosrow and Shirin and of Layli and Majnun, and the Haft Peykar, the Seven Beauties.
Poets imitated the Khamsa for centuries across the Persian-speaking world, and its scenes became favourite subjects of the miniature painters.
Booksکتابها
The principal works of Nezami Ganjavi.
The Treasury of Mysteries
مخزنالاسرارThe first poem of Nezami’s Khamsa, or Quintet: a didactic and mystical work of some two thousand couplets, in twenty discourses each followed by a short illustrative tale. It treats the soul, justice and the conduct of kings, and was much imitated by later poets, who wrote their own answers to it.
Khosrow and Shirin
خسرو و شیرینThe second poem of the Khamsa: the romance of the Sasanian king Khosrow Parviz and the Armenian princess Shirin, and of Farhad the sculptor, who cuts through a mountain for love of her. It is one of the great love stories of Persian literature, told with psychological depth and rich description.
Layli and Majnun
لیلی و مجنونThe third poem of the Khamsa, written in a few months at the request of the Shirvanshah. It retells the Arab tale of Qays, called Majnun, the madman, who loses his reason for love of Layli and wanders the desert among wild beasts. Nezami’s version became the model for countless retellings in Persian, Turkish and Urdu.
The Seven Beauties
هفت پیکرThe fourth poem of the Khamsa, on the Sasanian king Bahram Gur. At its heart are seven princesses in seven domed pavilions, each of a different colour and linked to a day and a planet, who each tell the king a story. It is often thought Nezami’s finest work.
The Book of Alexander
اسکندرنامهThe fifth and longest poem of the Khamsa, in two parts, the Sharaf-nameh and the Eqbal-nameh. It follows Alexander the Great first as conqueror, then as philosopher and prophet, in conversation with the sages of Greece and India. Dates for its completion vary between scholars.
Nezami Ganjavi in Iranian history
Iranian historySeljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanidsسلجوقیان، مغولان و ایلخانان
Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.