Background

Nizami was born in the ancient capital of Arran, Ganja city. It is generally assumed that the year of his birth was 1141. He grew up and lived there almost permanently, and died and was buried there. Afterwards, however, when the poet’s works gained wide popularity, many a town claimed him their own.

The poet’s own name was Ilyas, his father’s name was Yusuf, his grandfather and great-grandfathers were Zaki ad-Din and Muayyad fid-Din, respectively. Zaki ad-Din means "purity of faith," and Muayyad fid-Din "Supported (by Allah) in the faith." Such titles in the medieval Orient were conferred, as a rule, to scholars and clergymen. Apparently, the poet was born to a noble family. This is also confirmed by the fact that Nizami’s mother, the "Kurdish lady" ("Raisa-i kord"), also descended from a noble family. His maternal uncle, Omar, bore the title "Khwaja," usually given to court dignitaries in the poet’s time. Most probably, he served at the Atabey court in Ganja. The poet assumed the alias "Nizami" which literally means "the one who puts, strings the words in order."

Education

The education Nizami received was great for those times. According to the rules of the time, Ilyas was first educated within the family. As a kid (at the age of five), he learned the Holy Quran, which later repeatedly cited in his works. He also studied Quranic literature, Islamic law, the stories of Prophet Muhammad, and the whole range of disciplines that constituted the concept of "adaba" (education). As a rule, descendants of wealthy families were dispatched to the famous theological school The Nizamiyyah in Baghdad or to Damascus, Mecca, and Cairo to continue their education. Nizami, however, would not go; he chose to study in his hometown, since in 1150s Ganja became the town of choice for many great scientists, poets, writers, and architects. Judging by the books Nizami mentions, he had an access to manuscript lists of works in various fields of science, translations, interpretations of ancient writers, poetic collections of Arabic, Persian and Persian-writing authors that were kept in libraries of Ganja. Nizami thoroughly studied arithmetic, algebra, geometry, astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy, medicine, logic, metaphysics, geography, history, poetics, and versification. The greatest success he achieved in the field of science, as can be seen from his works, was in medicine and astronomy.

Even more than science, it was poetry that Ilyas was fond of yet in his teen age. Apart from his native Azerbaijani language, which was then called "Turki" (Turkic), Nizami had a great command of both Arabic and Persian languages. While the former served as an everyday language of communication, since the bulk of Ganja’s and the entire Arran’s populace was Turkic-speaking, Arabic was the language of science and religion, whereas Persian was the language of poetry. Nizami studied and memorized verses written by both classical and contemporary Arab and Persian poets.

Career

Little is known of Nizami's life, but it is known for sure that he was not a court poet, as he feared that in such a role he would lose his honesty, and wanted, above all, freedom of creativity. At the same time, following tradition, Nizami dedicated his works to rulers from various dynasties.

The five qasidas of Nizami that came down to us can indisputably establish his "authorship"; they were written in different years of his life. Alongside qasidas, Nizami also wrote ghazals. Ghazals of Nizami differ significantly from those of his predecessors and contemporary poets alike. They are much more ingenious, inspired, and humane; reading them, we often see a concrete plot and real feelings such as love, anger, sadness, and delight of meeting with the beloved one; we can experience everything that a lover’s heart is full of.

Unfortunately, the Nizami’s Divan of lyric poems did not come down to us, although it in fact existed, as the poet himself says in the poem Layla and Majnun written in 1188. According to some medieval biographers, this Divan included about twenty thousand lines, but only a small part of this enormous lyrical heritage has survived.

It so happened that the poet dedicated one of his didactic qasidas to the ruler of Derbent, at that time a part of the Shirvanshah state. Nizami’s qasida dedicated to Dara Muzaffar ad-Din has not survived. But it is beyond doubt that, just like Nizami’s other qasidas, it contained a bitter pill of good advice in an appropriate poetic shape. It seems unlikely that a ruler would have liked such admonitions. It so happened that at the same time Muzaffar was presented another gift, a young beautiful lady from a Kipchaks tribe; her name was Appag, which means "white," "whitey" (her name was spelled "Afak" in Arabic transliteration as there is no sound "p" in the Arabic language).

Unable to conquer the heart of this virtuous slave, Muzaffar decided to give her away to the poet as a kind of fee for the qasida the latter had written for him. Perhaps he pursued two goals: to punish the poet and mock him for his overly persistent admonitions and lessons by setting on him a combative slave, and at the same time to humiliate Afak by handing her over to a poor poet and thus depriving her of "silk attires and delicious viands." Even if so, Muzaffar played a wrong card, as he inadvertently did a great favor to Nizami: the overjoyed poet really fell in love with Afak, and later on wrote in her memory one of his all-time poems that rightfully entered the gold annals of world literature.

The poet was the happiest man in 1174 when his son, Muhammad, was born. Those years, full of love and family happiness, were the best time in Nizami’s life. He found himself in his work, achieved perfection as an author; his social ideals and artistic principles, ethical and aesthetic views finally took shape. Nizami went on writing beautiful ghazals as well as didactic qasidas in which he preached noble humanistic ideas of serving people, but he also decided to develop in a large corporate body of work his teaching of the meaning of life and purpose of an individual.

As a matter of fact, that was the happiest time in the poet’s life; the time when he was on the rise, his talent maturing, and himself basking in the warmth of happiness and family well-being. But that happiness would not last long; in 1180, Afak passed away, leaving her young son Muhammad as a living memory of herself. It took Nizami a long time to recover from Afak’s passing. He still lived with his son but would not get married for almost 7 years. Whenever he had time free of worldly affairs, he spent it home, in industrious pursuits among books. Nizami wrote five poems in his lifetime. These poems titled Khamsa (Quinary) or Panj Ganj (Five Treasures): Makhzan-ol-Asrâr (Treasury or Storehouse of Mysteries), Khosrow o Shirin (Khosrow and Shirin), Leyli o Majnun (Layla and Majnun), Eskandar-Nâmeh (The Book of Alexander), Haft Peykar (The Seven Beauties).

The Treasury or Storehouse of Mysteries was written in 1163 (some date it 1176). 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 an 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. The stories which discuss spiritual and practical concerns enjoin kingly justice, riddance of hypocrisy, warning of the vanity of this world and the need to prepare for the after-life. The general message of the discourse is that Nizami preaches the ideal way of life drawing attention to his reader of the supreme rank man among God's creatures and approaching the end of life and the necessity of man becoming aware of his spiritual destination.

Khosrow and Shirin was produced between 1177 and 1180. A story of pre-Islamic Persian origin which is found in the great epico-historical poems of Shahnameh and is based on a true story that was further romanticized by Persian and Persian-speaking poets. 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 Sassanian Khosrow II Parviz towards his Aramean princess Shirin. Khosrow and Shirin recounts the story of King Khosrow's courtship of Princess Shirin, and 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. Khosrow endures long journeys, physical and spiritual, before returning to Shirin, his true love. They are eventually married, but eventually, Khosrow is killed by his son and Shirin commits suicide over the body of her murdered husband. Pure and selfless love is represented here embodied in the figure of Farhad, secretly in love with Shirin, who finally falls victim to the king's ire and jealousy.

Layla and Majnun appeared in 1192. The poem of 4,600 distichs was dedicated, in 1192, to Abu al-Muzaffar Shirvanshah, who claimed descent from the Sassanid King, whose exploits are reflected in Nizami's Seven Beauties (Haft Paykar). The poem is based on the popular Arab legend of ill-starred lovers: the poet Qays falls in love with his cousin Layla, but is prevented from marrying her by Layla's father. Layla's father forbids contact with Qays and Qays becomes obsessed and starts signing of his love for Layla in public. The obsession becomes so severe that he sees and evaluates everything in terms of Layla; hence his sobriquet "the possessed" (Majnun). Realizing that cannot obtain union even when other people intercede for him, he leaves society and roams naked in the desert among the beasts. However, the image of Layla was so ingrained in him that he cannot eat or sleep. His only activity becomes composing poetry of longing for Layla. Meanwhile, Layla is married against her will, but she guards her virginity by resisting the advances of her husband. Arranging a secret meeting with Majnun, they meet, but have no physical contact. Rather they recite poetry to each other from a distance. Layla's husband dies eventually which removes the legal obstacles to a licit union. However, Majnun is so focused on the ideal picture of Layla in his mind that he had fled to the desert. Layla dies out of grief and is buried in her bridal dress. Hearing this news, Majun rushes to her grave where he instantly dies. They are buried side by side and their grave becomes a site of pilgrimage. Someone dreams that in Paradise they are united and live as a king and queen. Nizami composed his romance at the request of the Shirvanshah Akhsatan.

The Seven Beauties was introduced in 1197. A pre-Islamic story of Persian origin, it was dedicated to the ruler of Maragha, 'Ala' Al-Din Korp Arslan. 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 Gur. His adventurous life had already been treated by Ferdowsi in the Shahnama, to which fact Nizami 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 on new material. 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 (traditional Zoroastrian-Islamic division of the Earth) and he falls in love with them.

The Romance of Alexander the Great was written in 1194 (or 1196–1202) and contains 10,500 distichs. There are differences of opinion on whether this was Nizami's last epic or the Haft Paykar. The names of its dedicatees are uncertain but the ruler of Ahar, Nosart al-Din Bishkin b. Mohammad has been mentioned. The story is based on Islamic myths developed about Alexander the Great, which derive from Qur'anic references to the Dhu'l-Qarnayn as well as from the Greek Alexander romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes. It consists of two books, Sharafnama and Iqbal-nameh. The poem narrates the three stages in Alexander's life: first as the conqueror of the world; then as a seeker after knowledge, gaining enough wisdom to acknowledge his own ignorance; and as a prophet, traveling once again across the world, from west to east, and south to north to proclaim his monotheistic creed to the world at large.

Achievements

• 

  A celebrated poet and humanitarian, Nizami gained popularity far beyond the Orient. Apart from his masterpiece, the Khamsa, Nizami left a rich lyrical legacy. His works have been translated into many languages of the world, and are studied by individual scientists and entire research teams. His heritage inspired and still inspires writers, playwrights, composers, and artists, especially across the Orient. Nizami’s poems naturally formed a distinctive cycle with a pronounced ideological and artistic cohesion.
  
  There are several monuments to Nizami not only in many cities of Azerbaijan and Iran, but also in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kyiv. A mausoleum was built in honor of Nizami in Ganja, Azerbaijan. A minor planet 3770 Nizami, discovered in 1974, is named after him.
  
  The year 1991 was named the year of Nizami in honor of the 850th anniversary of the poet.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The seven beauties

    (The seven beauties also known as Bahramnameh (The Book of...)

  • Nizami: The Treasury of Mysteries

    (The Treasury of Mysteries, the most beautiful mystic poem...)

  • Mirror of the Invisible World: Tales from the Khamseh of Nizami
  • Nizami: Selected Poems
  • Laili and Majnun
  • Sikandarnama
  • The poet of the heart: 100 aphorisms from Nizami Ganjavi

Views

Nizami's lyric as a whole is of life-asserting nature; he uses it to urge people to value life, its beauty, and originality, as well as to cherish its wonderful gift, love, which sublimates a human soul.

Interests

• Writers

  Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, Sanai

Connections

Nizami was not married and, apparently, didn’t even think of it, when he met Afak. It was the first time in his life that the thirty-year-old poet experienced the genuine feeling of attachment and love. Nizami introduced the proud and beautiful Turkic girl to his home not as a slave or bondmaid, but as his lawful and respected wife.

Afak played a significant role in Nizami’s life and work. As it was mentioned above, she was from the Kipchaks, one of the biggest Turkic nations. She helped him gain a foothold as a poet and contributed to his concept of sublime love and teaching of harmonious relationship between a woman and a man. The poet was the happiest man in 1174 when his son, Muhammad, was born. Those years, full of love and family happiness, were the best time in Nizami's life.

Father:

Yusuf ibn Zaki

Mother:

Ra'isa

Wife:

Afak

Son:

Mohammad

Acquaintance:

Muzaffar al-Din

References

• Nizami Ganjavi International Center The Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC) is a cultural organization, which carries out academic studies and promotes the great Nizami and his legacy for the sake of expanding the reputation of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the global arena. The primary objective of the Center is to promote intercultural dialogue, peace, and human rights in the world today. It builds upon principles of conservation of rich cultural heritage and fostering various scholarship programs, researches, and cultural activities across the society. The Center, as an advanced point of expertise, also seeks to be a means of dialogue and mutual understanding between cultures and nations. The Center has operated as a national organization with international mandate since 30 September 2012. Heavily supported by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Chair and members of the Board of Trustees, NGIC works its way up to become a global institution truly worthy of its name. Today, NGIC is becoming a top-rank collaboration platform by hosting the Global Baku Forum, an event traditionally held in Baku, as well as various high-level meetings that discuss challenges faced by the world.
• A Poem About Immortal Love Author prof. Rustam Aliyev, Baku, Yazıchi, 1991. Russian edition: Алиев Р. “Поэма о бессмертной любви”. Бакы. Язычы. 1991.
  1991
• A Literary History of Persia Browne, Edward Granville
  1902
• History of Iranian literature
  1968
• Science and Poetry in Medieval Persia: The Botany of Nizami's Khamsa Nizami Ganjavi is one of the foremost figures in Persian poetry, living in Azerbaijan in the second half of the twelfth century. One of the oldest Western poets in Persian literature, he is acclaimed for his five masnavis which are assembled to form the Khamsa (Quintet). His reputation is that of a difficult and refined poet, who introduced into his verse vocabulary, expressions, and allusions to the then-known sciences. This study considers all his verses containing allusions to trees and their fruit. The scientific contents of these allusions are then checked with the help of Arabic and Persian medieval scientific treatises, ranging from the ninth to the seventeenth century.
• The Poetry of Nizami Ganjavi: Knowledge, Love, and Rhetoric These essays explore Nizami s influential role and his portrayal of issues related to love, women, and science, stressing his preoccupation with the art of speech as a major impetus behind his literary activity
  2000