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Nezāmi Ganjavī (نظامی گنجوی)
(1141—1209)

Nezāmi-ye Ganjavī, whose full name was Nizām ad-Dīn Abū Muhammad Ilyās ibn-Yusūf ibn-Zakī ibn-Mu'ayyid, is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is widely appreciated and shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Nezami is also pronounced as Nizami in some Western literature, Russian, Azerbaijani and some Persian dialects.

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!"^[3]

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, botany, Koranic exegesis, Islamic theory and law, history, ethics, philosophy and esoteric thought, music, and the visual arts.

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 , also known by the Persian pronunciation of the same word in Arabic, Khamse.

Azerbaijan, 2012, Museum of Literature

Iran, 1991, Nizami Gyandzhevi

USSR, 1958, Monument to Nizami Gyandzhevi in Baku

USSR, 1981, Nizami Gyandzhevi

USSR, 1981.09.29, Baku. Nizami Gyandzhevi