Eastern literature in the middle ages

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 (خمسه, 'Quintet or Quinary') or Panj Ganj ('Five Treasures'):

Makhzan-ol-Asrâr (مخزن‌الاسرار, 'The Treasury or Storehouse of Mysteries'[5]), 1163 (some date it 1176)

Khosrow o Shirin (خسرو و شیرین, 'Khosrow and Shirin'), 1177–1180
Leyli o Majnun (لیلی و مجنون, 'Layla and Majnun'), 1192
Eskandar-Nâmeh (اسکندرنامه, 'The Book of Alexander'), 1194 or 1196–1202
Haft Peykar (هفت پیکر, '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,[5] appear again here at the center of three of four of Nezami's narrative poems. The adventure of the paired lovers, Layla and Majnun, is the subject of the second of his four romances, and derived from Arabic sources.[5] In all these cases, Nezami reworked the material from his sources in a substantial way.[5]
The Khamsa was a popular subject for lavish manuscripts illustrated 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.
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 Neẓāmi'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).[58] The legacy of Nezami 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 Nezami's poems alongside those of Ferdowsi's Shahnama have been the most frequently illustrated literary works.[58] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Nezami is "admired in Persian-speaking lands for his originality and clarity of style, though his love of language for its own sake and of philosophical and scientific learning makes his work difficult for the average reader."[1] Nezami composed his verses in Persian language[59] and Western encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia of Islam,[10] Encyclopædia Iranica,[13] Encyclopædia Britannica[1] and orientalists of many countries[60] consider Nezami as a significant Persian poet and hail him as the greatest exponent of romantic epic poetry in Persian literature.[61] Amongst the many notable poets who have taken the Five Treasures of Nezami 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, Fuzûlî, Hashemi Kermani, Fayzi, Jamali[62] and Ahmad Khani.[citation needed] Not only poets, but also historians such as Rawandi were influenced by Nezami'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."[27] According to Vahid Dastgerdi, "If one would search all existing libraries, one would probably find more than 1000 versions of Layla and Majnun." Jami in his Nafahatol Ons remarks that: "Although most of Nezami's work on the surface appear to be romance, in reality they are a mask for the essential truths and for the explanation of divine knowledge." Jami in his Baharestan mentions that "Nezami's excellence is more manifest than the sun and has no need of description. Hashemi of Kerman remarks: The empire of poetry obtained its law and order from Nezami's beautiful verses and To present words before Nezami's silent speech is a waste of time."
Ganjavi poems in the Indian subcontinent
Ganjavi's poems were very popular in the Indian subcontinent. Persian language and literature have had a great impact on the entire Indian subcontinent. Nizami Ganjavi has been imitated by many poets due to his unique style of speech and language of poetry. Poets who have imitated Ganjavi's woto include: Amir Khusro Delhi, Khwaju Kermani, Jami, Hatefi, Ghasemi, Vahshi Bafqi, 'Orfi Shirazi, Maktabi, Faizi, Ashraf Maraghi, Azar Bigdeli, Badriddin Hilali , Rumi Kermani, Maulana Navidi Shirazi and Salman Savaji.[63] 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 drunkingly sweet,
Yet in goblet [glass] beside us – only muddy setting." According to the book Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Ashoka Hall, the most important hall of the Indian Presidential Palace, Persian poems were written and decorated with paintings from Iran or Persia such as the Fateh Ali Shah, Shah Qajar and poems of Hafez, Khayyam and Nezami Ganjavi are painted on the ceiling and parts of the hall. A large oil painting illustration of Nezami Ganjavi and a large painting of a Persian lady on both sides of the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan. 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(Gurkanid) Emperor Akbar in the 1590s.[1] [2]
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.[64] 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.[65] 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
Nezami was depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 500 manat banknote of 1993–2006.[66] 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.[67] 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[68] 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.[69] 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 Nezami are found 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).[70]
2021 was declared as "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" in the country.
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."[citation needed]
With regards to the recitation of his poetry, Peter Chelkowski states: "The memorization and recitation of their literary heritage has alway beens 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 spirituallity and genuine piety. For richness and fineness of metaphor, accuracy, and profundity of psychological observation, and sheer virtuosity of storytelling, Nizami is unequalled".