Nizami Ganjavi

Born into a Persian family, his personal name was Ilyas and his chosen pen-name was Nizami (also spelled Nezami). He was born of an urban background in Ganja (Seljuq Because Nizami was not a court poet, he does not appear in the annals of the dynasties. early and was raised by his maternal uncle Khwaja Umar, who took responsibility for him and afforded him an excellent education. His mother, named ''Ra'isa, was of Kurdish origin. His father, whose name was Yusuf is mentioned once by Nizami in his poetry. some have taken the word Mu'ayyad'' as a title for Zakki Family Nizami was married three times. His first wife was an enslaved Kipchak who was sent to him by Fakhr al-Din Bahramshah, the ruler of Darband, as part of a larger gift. According to Iraj Bashiri she became Nizami's "most beloved" wife. His only son Mohammad was from this wife. She died after "Khosrow and Shirin" was completed. Mohammad was seven at the time. Nizami mentions his son again in Layli and Majnun adding that now this son is 14 years old and "apple of my eyes". In "Haft Peykar" (Seven Beauties), he also mentions and advises his son about taking more responsibility as the father was growing more frail. Some modern writers in the late 20th century have claimed that this wife was called Afaq. Vahid Dastgerdi seems to be the first writer to propose this name for Nizami's first wife, but Said Nafisi (at the same time) and a recent source have challenged this interpretation of the corresponding verse in Nizami's work and the assumption that Afaq was the real name of his wife and have taken the Afaq in that verse to simply mean "horizon" rather than a proper name. Strangely enough, Nizami's two other wives, too, died prematurely – the death of each coinciding with the completion of an epic, prompting the poet to say, "God, why is it that for every mathnavi I must sacrifice a wife!". ==Education==

Nizami was not a philosopher in the sense of Avicenna or an expositor of theoretical Sufism in the sense of Ibn 'Arabi. However, he is regarded as a philosopher history, ethics, philosophy and esoteric thought, music, and the visual arts. cultural heritage unite pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran into the creation of a new standard of literary achievement. Being a product of the Iranian culture of the time, he not only created a bridge between pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran, but also between Iran and the whole ancient world. ==Influences and literary scene==

discovers Shirin bathing in a pool. Nizami's poems in a Persian miniature, created in ca. 1550 in Shiraz, Persia. Collection of Freer Gallery of Art The recent discovery and publication of the anthology titled Nozhat al-Majales contains Persian language quatrains from Nizami and 115 other poets from the northwestern Iran (Arrān, Sharvān, Azerbaijan; including 24 poets from Ganja alone) during the same era. or "Tabriz School" or "Shirvan School" of Persian poetry. This school produced a distinctive style of poetry in Persian, which contrasted with "Khurasani" ("Eastern") style in its rhetorical sophistication, its innovative use of metaphor, its use of technical terminology and Christian imagery, the presence of Persian archaism while borrowing from Arabic vocabulary, as well as new concepts. Qizil Arslan welcomes Nizami The Seljuqs took control of Ganja from the Shaddadids in 1075 and spread Persian literary westwards to their courts. In the middle of the 12th century, the Seljuk Empire's control of the region weakened and their provincial governors, virtually autonomous local princes, further encouraged Persian Nizami mentioned Ferdowsi as the Sage (hakim) and Knower/Wise (dānā) and the great master of discourse, "who has decorated words like new bride." Nizami advises the son of the Shirvanshah to read the Shahnameh and to remember the meaningful sayings of the wise. Nizami used the Shahnameh as a source in his three epics of Haft Peykar, Khosrow and Shirin and Eskandar-Nameh. This is especially noticeable in Khosrow and Shirin, which is of the same meter and imitates some scenes from Vis and Ramin. Nizami's concern with astrology also has a precedent in an elaborate astrological description of the night sky in Vis and Ramin. Nizami had a paramount influence on the romantic tradition, and Gorgani can be said to have initiated much of the distinctive rhetoric and poetic atmosphere of this tradition, with the absence of the Sufi influences, which are seen in Nizami's epic poetry. The first monumental work of Nizami, the Makhzan al-Asrar is influenced by Sanai's Hadikat al-Hakika. in general. ==Works==

Nizami lived in an age of both political instability and intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect, but little is known about his life, his relations with his patrons, or the precise dates of his works, as the many legends built up around the poet color the accounts of his later biographers. He dedicated his poems to various rulers of the region as was the custom of that time for great poets, but avoided court life. Nizami was a master of the masnavi style (double-rhymed verses). The Khamsa or Panj Ganj Nizami's main poetical work, for which he is best known, is a set of five long narrative poems known as the Khamsa (, 'Quintet or Quinary') or Panj Ganj (, 'Five Treasures'): • Makhzan-ol-Asrâr (, 'The Treasury or Storehouse of Mysteries'), 1163 (some date it 1176) • Khosrow o Shirin (, 'Khosrow and Shirin'), 1177–1180 • Leyli o Majnun (, 'Layla and Majnun'), 1192 • Eskandar-Nâmeh (, 'The Book of Alexander'), 1194 or 1196–1202 • Haft Peykar (, 'The Seven Beauties'), 1197 The first of these poems, Makhzan-ol-Asrâr, was influenced by Sanai's (d. 1131) monumental Garden of Truth. The four other poems are medieval romances. Khosrow and Shirin, Bahram-e Gur, and Alexander the Great, who all have episodes devoted to them in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Makhzan-ol-Asrâr The ethico-philosophical poems of about 2,250 Persian distichs were dedicated to Fakhr al-Din Bahramshah, the ruler of Erzinjan. The story deals with such esoteric subjects as philosophy and theology. The story contains twenty discourses, each of them portraying an exemplary story on religious and ethical topics. Each chapter concludes with apostrophe to the poet himself containing his pen name. The content of the poems are indicated in the heading to each chapter and are written in a typical Homiletics style. After this early work, Nizami turned towards narrative poetry. Khosrow o Shirin A story of pre-Islamic The story chosen by Nizami, was commissioned and dedicated to the Seljuk Sultan Toghril II, the Atabek Muhammad ibn Eldiguz Jahan Pahlavan and his brother Qizil Arslan. It contains about 6,500 distichs in length, the story depicts the love of Sasanian Khosrow II Parviz towards his Armenian princess Shirin. Khusrow and Shirin recounts the story of King Khosrow's courtship of Princess Shirin, and the vanquishing of his love-rival, Farhad. The story has a complex structure with several genres exploited simultaneously; and contains many verbal exchanges and letters, all imbued with lyrical intensity. which was later adapted and embellished by the Persians. Nizami gave a Persian character Further, he adapted the different stories about Majnun to fit a well-crafted Persian romantic epic. The Story of Layla and Majnun by Nizami, was edited and translated into English by Swiss scholar of Islamic culture Rudolf Gelpke and published in 1966. A comprehensive analysis in English containing partial translations of Nizami's romance Layla and Majnun examining key themes such as chastity, constancy and suffering through an analysis of the main characters was published by Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab. Eskandar-Nâmeh sharing his throne with Queen Nushabah, taken from the Sharaf-Nama owned by the Sultan of Bengal Nasiruddin Nasrat Shah. (British Library) The Iskandarnameh of Nizami contains 10,500 distichs. There are differences of opinion on whether this or the Haft Paykar was Nizami's last epic. knight. An English translation of the Sharaf-Nama by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke was published in 1881 under the title Sikandar Nama e Bara and is available online. Haft Peykar of Nizami. Brooklyn Museum. A pre-Islamic story of Persian The poet starts by giving an account of the birth of Bahram Gur and his upbringing in the court of the Arab king No'man and his fabled palace Khwarnaq. Bahram whose upbringing is entrusted to No'man becomes a formidable huntsman. While wandering through the fabled palace, he discovers a locked room which contains a depiction of seven princesses, hence the name Haft Peykar (seven beauties). Each of these princesses is from the seven different climes (according to the traditional Zoroastrian-Islamic division of the Earth) and he falls in love with them. His father Yazdegerd I passes away, and Bahram returns to Persia to claim his throne from pretenders. After some episodes, he is recognized as King and rescues the Persians from a famine. Once the country is stable, the King searches for the seven princesses and wins them as his brides. His architect is ordered to construct seven domes for each of his new brides. The architect tells him that each of the seven climes is ruled by one of the seven planets (according to the classical planetary system of the Zoroastrian-Islamic world) and advises him to assure good fortune by adorning each dome with the color that is associated with each clime and planet. Bahram is skeptical but follows the advice of the architect. The princesses take up residence in the splendid pavilions. On each visit, the king visits the princesses on successive days of the week; on Saturday the Indian princess, who is governed by Saturn and so on. The princesses names are Furak (Nurak), the daughter of the Rajah of India, as beautiful as the moon; Yaghma Naz, the daughter of the Khaqan of the Turks; Naz Pari, the daughter of the king of Khwarazm; Nasrin Nush, the daughter of the king of the Slavs; Azarbin (Azareyon), the daughter of the king of Morocco; Humay, the daughter of the Roman Caesar; and Diroste (wholesome), a beautiful Iranian princess from the House of Kay Ka'us. Each princess relates to the king a story matching the mood of her respective color. A newer English rendering based on more complete manuscripts was accomplished by Julie Scott Meysami in 1995. along with 23 other poets from Ganja. A famous ghazal of Nizami talks about altruism as the path for reaching the ultimate spiritual goal: ==Legacy==

in Ganja, Republic of Azerbaijan. Nizami, whose works are all written in Persian, has a very high reputation in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, where Persian is the official language. His poetry is especially well known in Iran, and is also very popular in Azerbaijan, where his birthplace and mausoleum are located. He is known in other countries, especially in India and Pakistan. Persian culture The influence of Nizami's work on the subsequent development of Persian literature has been enormous and the Khamseh became a pattern that was emulated in later Persian poetry (and also in other Islamic literatures). The legacy of Nizami is widely felt in the Islamic world and his poetry has influenced the development of Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu poetry amongst many other languages. In the history of Persian miniature painting, the stories in Nizami's poems alongside those of Ferdowsi's Shahnama have been the most frequently illustrated literary works. and Western encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia of Islam, consider Nizami as a significant Persian poet and hail him as the greatest exponent of romantic epic poetry in Persian literature. Amongst the many notable poets who have taken the Five Treasures of Nizami as their model may be mentioned Amir Khusro, Jalal Farahani, Khwaju Kermani, Mohammad Katebi Tarr-Shirini, Abdul Rahman Jami, Hatefi Jami, Vahshi Bafqi, Maktabi Shirazi, Ali-Shir Nava'i, Abdul Qader-e Bedel Dehlavi, Fuzuli, Hashemi Kermani, Fayzi, Jamali and Ahmad Khani. Not only poets, but also historians such as Rawandi were influenced by Nizami's poetry and used his poems as a source for rendering history. Besides these, scores of poets have started their composition with the first line of the Makhzan al-Asrar. According to Rudolf Gelpke, "Many later poets have imitated Nizami's work, even if they could not equal and certainly not surpass it; Persians, Turks, Indians, to name only the most important ones. The Persian scholar Hekmat has listed not less than forty Persian and thirteen Turkish versions of Layli and Majnun." Amir Khusro Dehlavi praises Ganjavi in his poems as a master of the art of praise. Amir Khusro writes: "The ruler of the kingdom of words, famed hero, Scholar and poet, his goblet [glass] toasts. In it – pure wine, it's drunkenly sweet, Yet in goblet [glass] beside us – only muddy setting." A portrait of Nizami hangs in the Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace of India. The hall is also decorated with poems by Nizami and other Persian poets. The Khamsa was a popular subject for lavish manuscripts with painted miniatures at the Persian and Mughal courts in later centuries. Examples include the Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208), created for the Mughal emperor Akbar in the 1590s. Soviet Union In the early 1940s and to mark the 800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi, Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov planned to write seven songs based on Nizami's poem about the Seven Beauties. However, Hajibeyov wrote only two songs: Sensiz (Without You, 1941) and Sevgili Janan (Beloved, 1943). Another Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev, composed Seven Beauties (ballet) in 1947–48 based on Nizami's eponymous poem that won an international acclaim. He also composed Leyli and Majnun (ballet) that premiered on 25 May 1969 at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Baku and later was recorded as a film. A minor planet, called 3770 Nizami, was discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh in 1974 and named after him. Further, the Museum of Azerbaijan literature in Baku is named after Nizami. Azerbaijan (1993) in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. Nizami was depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 500 manat banknote of 1993–2006. In 2008, coinciding with the 800th anniversary of his death, the National Bank of Azerbaijan minted a 100 manat gold commemorative coin dedicated to his memory. The Nizami Museum of Literature is located in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. One of the Baku Metro stations is also named after Nizami Ganjavi. There is Institute of Literature named after Nizami and Cinema named after Nizami in Baku. One of the districts of Baku is called Nizami raion. The life of Nizami Ganjavi is shown in the Azerbaijani movie "Nizami" (1982), in which the leading role, role of Nizami Ganjavi, was played by Muslim Magomayev. The Nizami Mausoleum, built in honor of Nizami, stands just outside the city of Ganja in Azerbaijan. It is a tall cylindrical building, surrounded by gardens. To one side, there is a metal statue commemorating Nizami's epic poems. The mausoleum was originally built in 1947 in place of an old collapsed mausoleum and rebuilt in its present form when the Azerbaijani Republic regained its independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Monuments to Nizami exist in many cities of Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran, as well as in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Udmurtiya (Russia), Kyiv (Ukraine), Beijing (China), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Marneuli (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova), Rome (Italy). 2021 was declared as "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" in the country. Japanese translation • "The Story of the Seven Queens (Haft Peykar)", translated into Japanese by Tsuneo Kuroyanagi, published by Heibonsha, July 1971. (Toyo Bunko 191) • "Khosrow and Shireen", translated by Emiko Okada, published by Heibonsha, June 1977. (Toyo Bunko 310) • "Layla and Majunoon", translated by Emiko Okada, Heibonsha, February 1981. (Toyo Bunko 394) ." Western reception German poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "A gentle, highly gifted spirit, who, when Ferdowsi had completed the collected heroic traditions, chose for the material of his poems the sweetest encounters of the deepest love. Majnun and Layli, Khosrow and Shirin, lovers he presented; meant for one another by premonition, destiny, nature, habit, inclination, passion staunchly devoted to each other; but divided by mad ideas, stubbornness, chance, necessity, and force, then miraculously reunited, yet in the end again in one way or another torn apart and separated from each other." In regard to the recitation of his poetry, Peter Chelkowski states: "The memorization and recitation of their literary heritage has always been vital to Iranians, whose attitude towards the power of the written and spoken word is reverential. Even today the national passion for poetry is constantly expressed over radio and television, in teahouses, in literary societies, in daily conversation, and in the ''Musha'areh'', the poetry recitation contest. Nizami's work serves as a vehicle and a symbol of this tradition, for it unites universality with deep-rooted artistic endeavor, a sense of justice and passion for the arts and sciences with spirituality and genuine piety. For richness and fineness of metaphor, accuracy, and profundity of psychological observation, and sheer virtuosity of storytelling, Nizami is unequalled". ==See also==