Nezami was born in Ganja, one of the major cities of the Atabekan-e-Azerbaijan, part of the Seljuk Empire, where he remained his whole life. Nizami was orphaned early and was raised by his maternal uncle Khwaja Umar who afforded him an excellent education. His mother, named Ra’isa, was of a Kurdish background and his father’s name, Yusuf, is mentioned once by Nezami in his poetry.

He married three times. His first wife, Afaq, a 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 Nezami’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, Nezami’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!
Education
About Nezami’s prodigious learning there is no doubt. Poets were expected to be well versed in many subjects; but Nezami seems to have been exceptionally so. His poems show that not only he was 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, astronomy, astrology, alchemy, medicine, Koranic exegesis, Islamic theory and law, history, ethics, philosophy and esoteric thought, music, and the visual arts.

Region

When in the twelfth century the Seljuks extended their control into the region, their provincial governors, virtually autonomous local princes called Atabek, encouraged Persian letters. Ganja was a major city of the Ildegezid Atabek rulers of Azerbaijan. 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.

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 many legends built up around the poet color the accounts of his later biographers. Although he left a small corpus of lyric poetry, Nezami is best known for his five long narrative poems. He dedicated his poems to various rulers of the region as was custom of that time for great poets, but avoided court life.

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 Nezami:

Makhzan al-Asrar 

The ethico-philosophical poems of about 2,250 Persian distichs was 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. The stories which discuss spiritual and practical concerns enjoin kingly justice, riddance of hypocrisy, warning of vanity of this world and the need to prepare for the after-life. 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

A story of Persian origin which is found in the great epico-historical poems of Shahnameh which was based on a true story which was further romanticized by Persian poets. The story chosen by Nezami, was commissioned and dedicated to the Seljuk Sultan Toghril II , the Atabek Muhammad ibn Eldiguz Jahan Pahlavan and his brother Qizil Arsalan. It contains about 6,500 distichs in length, the story depicts the love of Sassanian Khusraw II Parviz towards his Armenian or Caucasian Albanian princess, Shirin. Khusraw o Shirin recounts the story of King Khusraw’s courtship of Princess Shirin, and vanquishing of his love-rival, Farhad. Shirin eventually consents to marry Khusraw after several romantic and heroic episodes, including his rescue of her from a lion by killing the animal with his bare hands.

Layli o Majnun Layla and Majnun

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 Nezami’s “Seven Beauties.” The poem is based on the popular Arab legend of ill-starred lovers: the poet Qays falls in love with his cousin Layli, but is prevented from marrying her, and goes mad (Hence called Majnun meaning mad and possessed in Arabic). Majnun abandons society and family and moves to the desert and composes poems for his love Layli, who has been married to another. Although they were never united in life, when the lovers pass away, they are buried in the same grave. The Story of Layla and Majnun by Nizami, was translated and editied by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke into a English version in collaboration with E. Mattin and G. Hill Omega Publications and published in 1966.
A comprehensive analysis containg partial translations of Nezami’s romance Layli o Majnun examining key themes such as chastity, constancy and suffering through an analysis of the main characters was recently accomplished by Prof. Ali Gohrab.

Haft Peykar “The Seven Beauties

A 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-e Gur. His adventurous life had already been treated in Persian verse by [Ferdowsi] in the [Shahnama], 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.

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 :

Take not apart the good pearl from the string; from him who is of evil nature flee.
An evil nature acts consistently: have you not heard that Nature does not err?
The evil-natured man keeps faith with none; the erring nature does not fail to err.
The scorpion since it is by nature bad—to let it live’s a fault, to kill it, good.
Seek knowledge, for through knowledge you effect that doors to you be opened and not closed.
He who shames not at learning can draw forth pearls from the water, rubies from the rock.
Whilst he to whom no knowledge is assigned—that person (you will find)ashamed to learn.
How many, keen of mind, in effort slack, sell pottery from lack of pearls (to sell)!
How many a dullard, through his being taught, becomes the chief judge of the Seven Climes!

Eskandarname

The Romance of Alexander the Great contains 10,500 distichs. The names of its dedicatees are uncertain. 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, Sharaf-nameh and Iqbal-nameh. The Iqbal-nameh is a description of Alexander’s personal growth into the ideal ruler on a model ultimately derived, through Islamic intermediaries, from Plato’s Republic . An English translation of the book by H. Wilberfore Clarke was published in 1881.

Nezami was influenced greatly by Ferdowsi, Sanai, Asad Gorgani, Asadi Tusi, Rudaki and other poets before him. 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. Amongst the many notable poets who have taken the Five Treasures of Nezami as their model may be mentioned Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Jalal Farahani, Khwaju Kermani, Mohammad Katebi Tarr-Shirini, Abdul Rahman Jami, Hatefi Jami, Vahshi Baqfi, Maktabi Shirazi, Mir Ali Shir Nava’i, Abdul Qader-e Bedel Dehlavi, Fuzuli , Hashemi Kermani, Fayzi and Ahmad Khani. Not only poets, but historians such as Rawandi were also influenced by Nezami’s poetry and used his poem in rendering history.

Besides these, scores of poets have started their composition with the first line of the Makhzanol – Asrar.

According to Dr. 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 Perisans and thirteen Turkish versions of Layli and Majnun.

According to Vahid Dastgerdi, If one would search all existing libraries, one would probably find more than 1000 versions of Layli 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 veses and To present words before Nezami’s silent speech is a waste of time.

Amir Khosrow 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.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe writes: A gentle, highly gifted spirit, who, when Ferdowsi had completed the collected heroic traditions, chose for the material of his poems the sweetest encouters of the deepest love. Majnun and Layli, Khusraw and Shirin, lovers he presented; meant for one another by premonition, destiny, nature, habit, inclination, passion staunchly devoted to each other; but divied by mad ideas, stubbornnes, chance, necessity, and force, then miraculously reunited, yet in the end again in one way or another torn apart and separated from each other.

Nezami’s story of Layla and Majnun also provided the namesake for a hit single by Eric Clapton, also called Layla. Recorded with Derek and the Dominos, Layla was released on the 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The album was highly influenced by Nezami and his poetry of unrequited love. The fifth song of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, “I Am Yours,” was in fact a Nezami composition, set to music by Clapton.

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