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Nezami Ganjavi (نظامی گنجوی in Persian, Nizami Gəncəvi in Azerbaijani)‎ (1141 – 1209), whose full Arabic name was Nizām ad-Dīn Abū Muhammad Ilyās ibn-Yusūf ibn-Zakī ibn-Muˤayyid Nizāmī Ganjavī, was one of the greatest Persian language poets, philosophers and storywriters, who made an outstanding contribution to literature and culture.

Life

Nezami was born in Ganja, the capital of Arran in Azerbaijan, then Atabek State of Azerbaijan , part of the Seljuq Empire, where he remained until his death. His mother, named Ra'isa, was Kurdish. According to some sources, his father may have originated from the village of Ta or Tafresh near Qom, although this is neither in the earliest manuscripts, nor earliest biographies of Persian language poets, nor agreed to by many authoritative scholars .

He married three times. His first wife, Afaq, a Turkic Kipchak slave girl, was sent to him by Fakhr al-Din Bahramshah, the ruler of Darband, as a part of a larger gift. She became Nizami's first and most beloved wife. His only son Mohammad was from Afaq. Afaq died after "Khosrow and Shirin" was completed. Mohammad was seven at the time. Strangely enough, Nizami's 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!"

Language

The region of Arran (the central part of today's Republic of Azerbaijan), where Nezami lived and wrote, had in his time only recently become the scene of significant literary activity in Persian. In Azerbaijan, where numerous languages and dialects were spoken, one of the original languages was a local Iranian dialect, Azari (Arabic Āzarī, not to be confused by the Turkic Azeri language now spoken in the region) but with increasing westward migrations of Turks in the eleventh century, Turkish became widespread.

When in the twelfth century the Seljuks extended their control into the region, their provincial governors, virtually autonomous local princes, encouraged Persian letters. By the mid-twelfth century, many important poets enjoyed their patronage, and there developed a distinctive Azerbaijani style of poetry in Persian, which contrasted with Khurasani ("Eastern") style in its rhetorical sophistication, its innovative use of metaphor and its use of technical terminology and Christian imagery.

Works

Nezami 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 accounts of later biographers are colored by the many legends built up around the poet. Although he left a small corpus of lyric poetry, Nezami is best known for his five long narrative poems.

Often referred to by the honorific Hakim "the Sage", Nezami is both a learned poet and master of a lyrical and sensuous style. His poems show that not only was he fully acquainted with Arabic and Persian literature and with oral and written popular and local traditions, but was also familiar with such diverse fields as mathematics, geometry, astronomy and astrology, alchemy, medicine, Koranic exegesis, Islamic theology and law, history, ethnics, philosophy and esoteric thought, music and the visual arts.

Nezami was a master of the Masnavi style (double-rhymed verses) and one of the four great Persian language poets of the 12th century CE. He wrote poetical works; the main one is the Panj Ganj (Persian: Five Jewels) "Quinary", also known by the Persian pronunciation of the same word in Arabic, Khamse. The Quinary includes the five Persian books of Nizami:

• Makhzan al-Asrar "The Storehouse of Mysteries" (1174

Persian: مخزن الاسرار It contains about 2,250 Persian distichs on such esoteric subjects as philosophy and theology; it also contains admonitions directed to his only son, Muhammad. Not a romantic epic, the "The Treasury of Mysteries" was translated into English by Gholam H. Darab in 1945.

• Khusraw o Shirin "Khusraw and Shirin" (1177-1180)

A story of Persian origin which is found in the Shahnameh and is based on a true story which was further romanticized by Persian poets. It contains about 6,500 distichs in length, the story depicts the love of Sassanian Khusrau Parviz towards his Arrani princess, Shirin. A synopsis of the story is as follows. Khusraw was the son of the Sassanid King of Iran. One day, Khusraw’s advisor and friend, Shapur, who was from China, told him about the beautiful and virtuous niece of the Queen of Arran (as well as Armenia and nearly all of Caucasus, from Abkhazia to Derbent in Daghestan, to Mughan in Azerbaijan, and even her army being felt as far away as Isfahan in Iran), Mahin-Banu, whose name was Shirin. Shapur was sent by Khusraw to find the beautiful princess for Khusraw. Once Shapur had found her, he showed Princess Shirin a portrait of Prince Khusraw. She fell in love with the portrait of the handsome prince. Shirin and Khusraw both set out on a journey to look for each other, but were disappointed when they could not find one another. On the journey however, Khusraw did see a beautiful woman bathing in a pool, but unfortunately didn’t realize that this was in fact Shirin. Some time later there was a war in Iran, and Khusraw was forced to flee to Armenia. He at last met the beautiful Shirin, who was out hunting. They glared at each other for so long that their eyes filled with tears of love. Khusraw and Shirin spent their time together hunting, drinking wine and listening to stories. One day, while having a picnic feast on the bank of a river, Khusraw killed a lion with one blow of his fist. But Shirin told Khusraw that she would not love him until he won back his kingdom. So Khusraw travelled to Constantinople to ask the Emperor for help. Followed by a huge army, Khusraw, riding an elephant, fought and won the great and bloody battle. Because the Emperor had helped Khusraw to win back his kingdom, Khusraw was forced to marry the Emperor’s daughter in return. But Khusraw could not stop thinking about his true love, the beautiful Shirin. In the meantime, Farhad, an engineer, fell in love with Shirin. Khusraw was very jealous. He hired Farhad to build a roadway through a mountain. This was a difficult and dangerous job. Khusraw lied to Farhad telling him that Shirin had died. Farhad was so upset that he fell off the mountain and died. Khusraw’s wife also died, and Khusraw and Shirin were finally married. Khusraw lives with Shirin until he is assassinated. Shirin kills herself. Also Barbad the famous Persian Sassanid musician who vowed to play music only for Khusraw, cuts off his fingers so that he may never play again. A side note is that Farhads engineering work can still be seen in the province of in Iran and the city is called qasr-e-Shirin, close to the current Iraqi border. An excerpt from The Labors of Ferhad

The Labors of Ferhad

On lofty Beysitoun the lingering sun
looks down on ceaseless labors, long begun:
The mountain trembles to the echoing sound
Of falling rocks, that from her sides rebound.
Each day all respite, all repose denied---
No truce, no pause, the thundering strokes are plied;
The mist of night around her summit coils,
But still Ferhad, the lover-artist, toils,
And still---the flashes of his axe between---
He sighs to ev'ry wind, "Alas! Shireen!
Alas! Shireen!---my task is well-nigh done,
The goal in view for which I strive alone.
Love grants me powers that Nature might deny;
And, whatsoe'er my doom, the world shall tell,
Thy lover gave to immortality
Her name he loved---so fatally---so well!

A hundred arms were weak one block to move
Of thousands, molded by the hand of Love
Into fantastic shapes and forms of grace,
Which crowd each nook of that majestic place.
The piles give way, the rocky peaks divide,
The stream comes gushing on---a foaming tide!
A mighty work, for ages to remain,
The token of his passion and his pain.
As flows the milky flood from Allah's throne
Rushes the torrent from the yielding stone;
And sculptured there, amazed, stern Khosru stands,
And sees, with frowns, obeyed his harsh commands:
While she, the fair beloved, with being rife,
Awakes the glowing marble into life.
Ah! hapless youth; ah! toil repaid by woe---
A king thy rival and the world thy foe!
Will she wealth, splendor, pomp for thee resign---
And only genius, truth, and passion thine!
Around the pair, lo! groups of courtiers wait,
And slaves and pages crowd in solemn state;
From columns imaged wreaths their garlands throw,
And fretted roofs with stars appear to glow!
Fresh leaves and blossoms seem around to spring,
And feathered throngs their loves are murmuring;
The hands of Peris might have wrought those stems,
Where dewdrops hang their fragile diadems;
And strings of pearl and sharp-cut diamonds shine,
New from the wave, or recent from the mine.

"Alas! Shireen!" at every stroke he cries;
At every stroke fresh miracles arise:
"For thee these glories and these wonders all,
For thee I triumph, or for thee I fall;
For thee my life one ceaseless toil has been,
Inspire my soul anew: Alas! Shireen!"

What raven note disturbs his musing mood?
What form comes stealing on his solitude?
Ungentle messenger, whose word of ill
All the warm feelings of his soul can chill!
"Cease, idle youth, to waste thy days," she said,
"By empty hopes a visionary made;
Why in vain toil thy fleeting life consume
To frame a palace?---rather hew a tomb.
Even like sere leaves that autumn winds have shed,
Perish thy labors, for---Shireen is dead!"

He heard the fatal news---no word, no groan;
He spoke not, moved not, stood transfixed to stone.
Then, with a frenzied start, he raised on high
His arms, and wildly tossed them toward the sky;
Far in the wide expanse his axe he flung
And from the precipice at once he sprung.
The rocks, the sculptured caves, the valleys green,
Sent back his dying cry--- "Alas! Shireen!"
 

• Leyle o Majnun "Layla and Majnun" (1192)

A story Of Arabic origin, the poem of 4,700 distichs was dedicated, in 1192, to Abu al-Muzaffar Shirvanshah, a descendant of Bahram Chubin, the Sassanid general, whose exploits are reflected in Nizami's "Seven Beauties."

• Haft Peykar "The Seven Beauties" (1196)

A story of Persian origin. It is the story of Bahram V, the sassanid king, who is born to Yazdegerd after twenty years of childlessness and supplication to Ahura Mazda for a child. The Haft peykar is a romanticized biography of the Sasanian Persian empire ruler Bahram-e Gur. His adventurous life had already been treated in Persian verse by in the , to which fact Nezami alludes a number of times. In general, his method is to omit those episodes that the earlier poet had treated, or to touch on them only very briefly, and to concentrate in new material. </ref>

Original Persian: گوهر نیک را ز عقد مریز وآنکه بد گوهرست ازو بگریز

بدگهر با کسی وفا نکند اصل بد در خطا خطا نکند

اصل بد با تو چون شود معطی آن نخواندی که اصل لایخطی

کژدم از راه آنکه بدگهرست ماندنش عیب و کشتنش هنرست

هنرآموز کز هنرمندی در گشائی کنی نه در بندی

هرکه ز آموختن ندارد ننگ در برآرد ز آب و لعل از سنگ

وانکه دانش نباشدش روزی ننگ دارد ز دانش‌آموزی

ای بسا تیز طبع کاهل کوش که شد از کاهلی سفال فروش

وای بسا کور دل که از تعلیم گشت قاضی‌القضات هفت اقلیم

English translation by Wilson:

Take not apart the good pearl from the string; from him who

An evil nature acts consistently: have you not heard that Nature does

The evil-natured man keeps faith with none; the erring nature does not

The scorpion since it is by nature bad—to let it live’s a fault, to kill

Seek knowledge, for through knowledge you effect that doors to you be

He who shames not at learning can draw forth pearls from the water,

Whilst he to whom no knowledge is assigned—that person (you will find)

How many, keen of mind, in effort slack, sell pottery from lack of

How many a dullard, through his being taught, becomes the chief judge of

• Eskandarname "The Book of Alexander" (1196-1202)

The Romance of Alexander the Great" contains 10,500 distichs. The story is based on the Islamic myths developed about Alexander the Great, considered by many muslims to be the Dhul-Qarnain of the Quran. It consists of two books, Sharaf-nameh and Iqbal-nameh. .

The Nezami Museum of Literature is located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Nezami's mausoleum is located in Ganja, Azerbaijan. The monument was built on Nizami's grave in 1947, and replaced a similar obelisk dating from the early 1900s. The mausoleum is an elegant marble covered structure about 20 m tall. Behind it there is an open area with a display of scenes from Nezami's books, sculpted in metal. Monuments to Nizami are found in many cities of Azerbaijan, as well as in Tabriz (Iran), Moscow, St. Petersburg and Udmurtiya (Russia), Kiev (Ukraine), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Marneuli (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova).

Quotes

• همه عالم تن است و ايران دل "The world is a body and Iran is its heart", Translated from Nezami's original work (in Persian)

• “In this Habash my Turkishness is not appreciated, That's why my tasty dooghbaa/dogha is not eaten”. (In Farsi-e Dari: "Torkiyam raa dar in Habash Nakharand, laajaram Dooghbaayeh Khos Nakhorand". From: Seven beauties/Haft paykar, fourth epic poem of Nizami).

• “Reproach has now fallen upon me and it has dared to insult me, calling me Persian: that, I disregard, for I’m still an Arab and scorn this cowardly sneer of bragging fools unused to the shield and spear.” (poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “Layla and Majnun”, p. 117).

• “Rise of Empire of Turks was due to their love of justice. You’re no Turk! A plundering slave, fostering injustice.” (poetic translation into English by Paul Smith, based on 1945 literal translation of G.H.Darab, London, “The Treasury of the Mysteries”, p. 160).

See also

• List of Persian poets and authors
• Persian literature
• Nizami Mausoleum

Notes

1. Prof. M. Malek, "Persian Poetry: from Classic to Modern", presented at the Stevens Institute of Technology Humanities Forum, 2005: "... was an outstanding teacher and philosopher, and is considered one of the greatest Persian poets, comparable to Ferdowsi and Rumi. ..." (LINK)
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911, "Nizami", in Volume V19, Page 722, Online Edition (LINK)
3. Encyclopedia Britannica. Nezami.
4. ^
5. see: “Atabakan-e Adarbayjan", Encyclopedia Iranica, p. 890.
6. Prof. E.E. Bertels, "Great Azerbaijani poet Nizami", AzFAN Publishing House, Baku, 1940, p. 26; M.Shaginyan, “Studies/sketches about Nizami”, Yerevan: 1955; Baku: 1981, p. 19
7. Iraj Bashiri. Nizami's Life and Works.

References

• E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and twenty-five years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-700-70406-X
• Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. ASIN B-000-6BXVT-K
• Charles F. Horne, ed., The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, (New York: Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917), Vol.VIII: Medieval Persia, pp. 103-107
• Biography of Nizami Dr. Julie S. Meisami of Oxford University
• Some Persian links on Nizami
• An article on the history of Persian poetry in Arran and Shirvan
• Iranica Article

External links

• Biography of Nezami Ganjavi by Professor Julia Scott Meysami
• Bio: Nezami Ganjavi
• Nizami, Jamal al-Din Ilyas. A biography by Prof. Iraj Bashiri, University of Minnesota.
• Nezami's works in original Persian
• The Legend of Leyli and Majnun
• Eskandar Nama of Nizami Ganjavi by Iranica
• Iranica Article on Haft Paykar

• Add to Wikisource
• Persian literature
• Iranian poets
• Persian poets
• Azerbaijani poets