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Nezami Ganjavi

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Ilyās ibn Yūsuf

20th century Artistic rendition of Nezami
Born 1141 (approximate)
Ganja
Died 1209
Ganja
Writing period 12th century
Genres Romantic Persian Epic Poetry, Wisdom Literature
Notable work(s) The Five Jewels (Panj Ganj)

Nezāmi-ye Ganjavi (Persian: نظامی گنجوی; Kurdish: Nîzamî Gencewî, نیزامی گه‌نجه‌وی; Azerbaijani: Nizami Gəncəvi, نظامی گنجوی ;‎ 1141 to 1209), or Nezāmi (Persian: نظامی), whose formal name was Niżām ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakī ibn-Mu‘ayyad, is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic[1][2]. His heritage is widely appreciated and shared by Afghanistan[1], Azerbaijan[3], Iran[4], and Tajikistan[1].

Contents

Life

His personal name was Ilyas[4] and his chosen pen-name was Nezami (also spelled as Nizami and Neẓāmi). He was born of an urban[3] background in Ganja and is believe to have spent his whole life in Transcaucasia. Little is known about his life[1][3], the only source being his own work, which does not provide much information on his personal life[1][3].

Parents

Nezami was orphaned[1][5] early and was raised by his maternal uncle Khwaja Umar who took responsibility for him and afforded him an excellent education. His mother, named Ra'isa, was of a Kurdish[2][3][6] background. His father, whose name was Yusuf is mentioned once by Nezami in his poetry.[2] In the same verse, Nezami mentions his grandfather's name as Zakki and his great grandfather's name as Mu'ayyad. Some sources have stated that his father might be possibly from Qom[2][6].

Nezami was at least half Iranian[3], but there exists a dispute, with allegation of politicization[7] about his father's ethnicity and Iranic[8], Turkic[9] and Jewish[9] have been mentioned.

Family

Nezami was 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!"[10]

Education

Often referred to by the honorific Hakim("the Sage"), Nezami is both a learned poet and master of a lyrical and sensuous style. 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 literatures and with oral and written popular and local traditions, but was also familiar with such diverse fields as mathematics, astronomy, astrology, alchemy, medicine, botany[9], Koranic exegesis, Islamic theory and law, history, ethics, philosophy and esoteric thought, music, and the visual arts.[2]

Influences and Literary Scene

Khosrow Parviz discovers Shirin bathing in a pool

The earliest extant example of Persian poetry from the area is that of Qatran Tabrizi who served in the courts of the Shaddadid and Rawadid dynasties. Qatran Tabrizi, is credited with what some scholars in the last century have termed as the founder of the "Azerbaijan"[2] or "Trans-Cacausian" school[11] of Persian poetry. This school produced a distinctive 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. The Seljuqs took control of Ganja from the Shaddadids in 1075 A.D. and spread Persian literary westwards to their courts. In the middle of the twelfth century, the Seljuks control of the region weakened and their provincial governors, virtually autonomous local princes, further encouraged Persian poetry in their courts. Nezami was patronized by different rulers and dedicated his epics to various rival dynasties including the Seljuqs, Eldiguzids, Shirvanshahs and Ahmadilis (Atabekan-e-Maragheh). Although he enjoyed the patronage of various rulers and princes, he avoided the court life and is generally believed to have lived a secluded life.

According to Professor Chelkowski: It seems that Nezami’s favorite pastime was reading Firdawsi’s monumental epic Shahnameh (The book of Kings).[12] Nezami has mentioned Ferdowsi as the Sage (Hakim) and Knower/Wise (daanaa) and the great master of discourse: who has decorated words like new bride. Nezami advises the son of the Shirvanshah to read the Shah-nama and to remember the meaningful sayings of the wise.[13] Nizami has used the Shahnameh as a source in his three epics "Haft Paykar", "Khosrow and Shirin" and "Eskandar-nameh".

The story of Vis and Ramin also had an immense influence on Nezami. Although Nezami takes the bases for most of his plots from Ferdowsi, but the basis for his rhetoric comes from Gorgani.[14] This is especially noticeable in the Khosrow and Shirin, which is of the same meter and imitates some scenes from Vis and Ramin. Nezami's concern with astrology also has a precedent in an elaborate astrological description of the night sky in Vis and Ramin. Nezami had a paramount influence on the romantic tradition, and Gorgani can be said to have initiated much of the distinctive rhetoric and poetic atmosphere of this tradition, with the absence of the Sufi influences, which are seen in Nezami's epic poetry.

The first monumental work of Nezami, the Makhzan al-Asrar is influenced by Sanai’s "Hadikat al-Hakika".[15] Nezami acknowledges this but considers his work to be superior. The main similarities between Sanai’s poem and Nezami’s are in its ethico-philosophical genre, although Nezami utilizies a different metre and organized the whole work in a different fashion.[15]

Works

Wikisource
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Sassanid king, Bahram Gur is a great favourite in Persian tradition and poetry. Depction of Nezami's "Bahram and the Indian Princess in the Black Pavilion" Khamse ("Quintet"), mid-16th century Safavid era.
A manuscript from Nezami's Khamse dated 1494, depicting Muhammad's journey from Mecca to the Dome of the Rock to heaven. The archangel Gabriel is seen to Muhammad's right with multiple wings.
A scene from the romance "Layla and Majnun". The thwarted lovers meet for the last time before their deaths. Both have fainted and Majnun's elderly messenger attempts to revive Layla while wild animals protect the pair from unwelcome intruders. Late sixteenth century illustration.

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. Only a small corpus of his lyric poetry, mainly qaṣīdahs (“odes”) and ghazals(“lyrics”) have survived.

Nezami is best known for his five long narrative poems, which have been preserved. He dedicated his poems to various rulers of the region as was custom of that time for great poets, but avoided court life.

Nezami was a master of the Masnavi style (double-rhymed verses). 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 Storehouse of Mysteries" (1163) (some put it at 1176)
Persian: مخزن الاسرار
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.
Persian: خسرو و شیرین
A story of 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 poets.[16]. 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 Khosrow II Parviz towards his Armenian[17]) princess Shirin. Khosrow and Shirin recounts the story of King Khosrow’s courtship of Princess Shirin, and vanquishing of his love-rival, Farhad[18]. Shirin eventually consents to marry Khosrow after several romantic and heroic episodes, including his rescue of her from a lion by killing the animal with his bare hands.

An excerpt from "The Labors of Farhad"[19]

The Labors of Farhad

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 Farhad, 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!"
 

Persian: لیلی و مجنون
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 Layla, 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 edited by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke into a English version in collaboration with E. Mattin and G. Hill Omega Publications and published in 1966. [20].
A comprehensive analysis containing partial translations of Nezami's romance Layla and Majnun examining key themes such as chastity, constancy and suffering through an analysis of the main characters was recently accomplished by Prof. Ali Gohrab.[21]
  • Haft Paykar "The Seven Beauties" (1196)
Persian: هفت پیکر
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 Paykar 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 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 on new material.[22]
The story was translated to English in 1924 by Charles Edward Wilson. [23] A newer English rendering based on more complete manuscripts was accomplished by Professor Julia Scott Meysami.[2]

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 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!

  • Eskandar-nameh "The Book of Alexander" (1196-1202)
Persian: اسکندرنامه
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-Nama 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.[17] An English translation of the Sharaf-Nama book by Henry Wilberforce-Clarke was published in 1881 under the title Sikandar Nama e Bara.

Influence and Legacy

Nezami Mausoleum in Ganja.

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.

According to the Encyclopedia 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[24] and Western Encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia of Islam[15], Encyclopedia Iranica, Encyclopedia Britannica[1] and orientalists of many countries[25] consider Nezami as a significant Persian poet and hail him as the greatest exponent of romantic epic poetry in Persian literature[26].

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 and Ehmedê Xanî. 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 Makhzan al-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 Persians and thirteen Turkish versions of Layli and Majnun.[20]

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 verses and To present words before Nezami's silent speech is a waste of time.

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."

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 encounters 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 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.

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.

The Soviet ballet produced a film, Leili and Medjnun, named after a poem by Nizami Gandjevi.[27]

A minor planet 3770 Nizami, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh in 1974 is named after him. Monuments to Nezami are found in many cities of Azerbaijan, Iran, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Udmurtiya (Russia), Kiev (Ukraine), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Marneuli (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova). A museum called the "The Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani literature" is located in Azerbaijan and is devoted to Nezami.

Nezami was depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 500 manat banknote of 1993-2006.[28]

Mausoleum and Museum in Azerbaijan Republic

Main article: Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature
Main article: Nezami Mausoleum
Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature at night in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Nizami Museum of Literature is located in Baku, Azerbaijan Republic. The Nezami Mausoleum, built in honor of Nezami, stands just outside the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan Republic. It is a tall cylindrical building, surrounded by gardens. To one side, there is a metal statue commemorating Nezami's epic poems. The mausoleum was originally built in 1947 in place of an old collapsed mausoleum, and rebuilt in its present form after Azerbaijan Republic regained its independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

See also


Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Neẓāmī." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 28 Feb. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413374/Nezami> excerpt: Greatest romantic epic poet in Persian Literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. .... 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.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Dr. Julie Scott Meisami, "The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance (Oxford World's Classics)", Oxford University Pr. (T), 1995, ISBN 0-19-283184-4, extract
  3. ^ a b c d e f Jan Rypka (Rypka, Jan. ‘Poets and Prose Writers of the Late Saljuq and Mongol Periods’, in The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, ed., Published January 1968. pg 578:As the scene of the greatest flowering of the panegyrical qasida, southern Caucasia occupies a prominent place in New Persian literary history. Hakim Jamal al-din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b. Yusuf b. Zaki b. Mu’ayyad Nizami a native of Ganja in Azarbaijan, is an unrivaled master of thoughts and words, a poet whose freshness and vigor all the succeeding centuries have been unable to dull. Little is known of his life, the only source being his own works, which in many cases provided no reliable information. We can only deduce that he was born between 535 and 540 (1140-46) and that his background was urban. Modern Azarbaijan is exceedingly proud of its world famous son and insists that he was not just a native of the region, but that he came from its own Turkic stock. At all events his mother was of Iranian origin, the poet himself calling her Ra’isa and describing her as Kurdish.
  4. ^ a b C. A. (Charles Ambrose) Storey and Franço de Blois (2004), “Persian Literature - A Biobibliographical Survey: Volume V Poetry of the Pre-Mongol Period.”, RoutledgeCurzon; 2nd revised edition (June 21, 2004). ISBN 0947593470. Pg 363: “Nizami Ganja’i, whose personal name was Ilyas, is the most celebrated native poet of the Persians after Firdausi. His nisbah designates him as a native of Ganja (Elizavetpol, Kirovabad) in Azerbaijan, then still a country with an Iranian population, and he spent the whole of his life in Transcaucasia; the verse in some of his poetic works which makes him a native of the hinterland of Qom is a spurious interpolation.”
  5. ^ “The Poetry of Nizami Ganjavi: Knowledge, Love, and Rhetortics”, NY, 2001. pg 2: "His father, Yusuf and mother, Rai’sa, died while he was still relatively young, but maternal uncle, Umar, assumed responsibility for him"
  6. ^ a b A) V.Minorsky: "review of G. H. Darab translation of Makhzan al-Asrar" 1945 Minorsky, BSOAS., 1948, xii/2, 441-5):"Whether Nizami was born in Qom or in Ganja is not quite clear. The verse (quoted on p. 14): “I am lost as a pearl in the sea of Ganja, yet I am from the Qohestan of the city of Qom “, does not expressly mean that he was born in Qom. On the other hand, Nizami’s mother was of Kurdish origin, and this might point to Ganja where the Kurdish dynasty of Shaddad ruled down to AH. 468; even now Kurds are found to the south of Ganja." B)V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, Cambridge University Press, 1957. pg 34:“The author of the collection of documents relating to Arran Mas’ud b. Namdar (c. 1100) claims Kurdish nationality. The mother of the poet Nizami of Ganja was Kurdish (see autobiographical digression in the introduction of Layli wa Majnun). In the 16th century there was a group of 24 septs of Kurds in Qarabagh, see Sharaf-nama, I, 323. Even now the Kurds of the USSR are chiefly grouped south of Ganja. Many place-names composed with Kurd are found on both banks of the Kur”
  7. ^ A) Willem van Schendel (PhD, Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam), Erik Jan Zürcher (PhD. held the chair of Turkish Studies in the University of Leiden). Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. I.B.Tauris, 2001. ISBN 1860642616. "Soviet Nationalism’: An Ideological Legacy to the Independent Republics of Central Asia’" Prof. Dr. Bert G. Fragner (Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna): Executive Director (Institute of Iranian Studies)). page. 20 «It was up to the central power to solve these kinds of contradiction by arbitrary decisions. This makes clear that Soviet nationalism was embedded into the political structure of what used to be called ‘Democratic Centralism’. The territorial principle was extended to all aspects of national histories, not only in space but also in time: ‘Urartu was the oldest manifestation of a state not only on Armenian soil but throughout the whole Union (and, therefore, implicitly the earliest forerunner of the Soviet state)’, 'Nezami from Ganja is an Azerbaijani Poet', and so on.» B) Slezkine, Yuri. “The Soviet Union as a Communal Apartment.” in Stalinism: New Directions. Ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick, Routledge, New York, 2000. pages 330-335. ISBN 041515233X. Excerpt: "Indeed, the 1934 Congress of Soviet Writers, which in many ways inaugurated high Stalinism as a cultural paradigm, was a curiously solemn parade of old-fashioned romantic nationalisms. Pushkin, Tolstoy and other officially restored Russian icons were not the only national giants of international stature - all Soviet peoples possessed, or would shortly acquire, their own classics, their own founding fathers and their own folkloric riches. The Ukrainian delegate said that Taras Shevchenko was a “genius”and a “colossus” “whose role in the creation of the Ukrainian literary language was no less important than Pushkin’s role in the creation of the Russian literary language, and perhaps even greater.”The Armenian delegate pointed out that his nation’s culture was “one of the most ancient cultures of the orient,”that the Armenian national alphabet predated Christianity and that the Armenian national epic was “one of the best examples of world epic literature”because of “the lifelike realism of its imagery, its elegance, the profundity and simplicity of its popular wisdom and the democratic nature of its plot.”The Azerbaijani delegate insisted that the Persian poet Nizami was actually a classic of Azerbaijani literature because he was a “Turk from Giandzha” and ..." C) Walter Kolarz, "Russia and Her Colonies" Archon Books, 1967. page. 245. Excerpt: "The attempt to 'annex' an important part of Persian literature and to transform it into 'Azerbaidzhani literature' can be best exemplified by the way in which the memory of the great Persian poet Nizami (1141—1203) is exploited in the Soviet Union. The Soviet regime does not pay tribute to Nizami as a great representative of world literature, but is mainly interested in him as a ‘poet of the Soviet Union’, which he is considered to be because he was born in Gandzha in the territory of the present Azerbaidzhani Soviet Republic. The Soviet regime proclaims its ownership over Nizami also by ‘interpreting’ his works in accordance with the general pattern of Soviet ideology. Thus the leading Soviet journal Bolshevik stressed that Nizami’s ‘great merit’ consisted in having undermined Islam by ‘opposing the theological teaching of the unchangeable character of the world’. Stalin himself intervened in the dispute over Nizami and gave an authoritative verdict on the matter. In a talk with the Ukrainian writer, Mikola Bazhan, Stalin referred to Nizami as ‘the great poet of our brotherly Azerbaidzhani people’who must not be surrendered to Iranian literature, despite having written most of his poems in Persian." D) "AO Tamazishvili." Unknown Pages of Russian Oriental Studies: [Collection] / Ros. Acad. Sciences, Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Peterb. Phil. arch. RAS [status. V. Naumkin (отв. Ed.), NG Romanov, IM Smilyanska]. Moscow: Eastern. lit., 2004. From the History of Study of Nezami-ye Ganjavi in the USSR: around the anniversary - E. Bertels, Stalin, and others. Pp. 173-199. (in Russian)
  8. ^ A)C. A. (Charles Ambrose) Storey and Franço de Blois (2004), “Persian Literature - A Biobibliographical Survey: Volume V Poetry of the Pre-Mongol Period.”, RoutledgeCurzon; 2nd revised edition (June 21, 2004). Pg 363: “Nizami Ganja’i, whose personal name was Ilyas, is the most celebrated native poet of the Persians after Firdausi. His nisbah designates him as a native of Ganja (Elizavetpol, Kirovabad) in Azerbaijan, then still a country with an Iranian population, and he spent the whole of his life in Transcaucasia; the verse in some of his poetic works which makes him a native of the hinterland of Qom is a spurious interpolation.” B) Ian Philip McGreal , “Great Literature of the Eastern World”, Published 1996, p. 505):"His mother was an Iranian Kurd and it is possible that his father had the same ethnic origin, though he is claimed also by Turkish Azerbaijanis as being of their stock.". C) I.M. Dyakonoff (1915- 1999). The Book of Memoirs, Publisher: (European House), Sankt Petersburg, Russia, 1995 (Russian). excerpt pg 730-731: "There were slight problems with Nizami - first of all he was not Azeri but Persian (Iranian) poet, and though he lived in presently Azerbaijani city of Ganja, which, like many cities in the region, had Iranian population in Middle Ages. Russian:Перед войной отгремел юбилей армянского эпоса Давида Сасунского (дата которого вообще-то неизвестна) – хвостик этого я захватил в 1939 г. во время экспедиции на раскопки Кармир-блура. А сейчас в Азербайджане готовился юбилей великого поэта Низами. С Низами была некоторая небольшая неловкость: во-первых, он был не азербайджанский, а персидский (иранский) поэт, хотя жил он в ныне азербайджанском городе Гяндже, которая, как и большинство здешних городов, имела в Средние века иранское.". D) The Russian philologist Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky, Professor and the Dean of the Oriental Department of Saint Petersburg University comments(“Oriental Department is ready to cooperate with the West”, Saint Petersburg University newspaper, № 24—25 (3648—49), 1 November 2003”). http://www.spbumag.nw.ru/2003/24/1.shtml):"Мы готовили таких специалистов, но, как показывает наше с ними общение, там очень много националистических тенденций, научных фальсификаций. Видимо, это связано с первыми годами самостоятельности. В их трудах присутствует националистическое начало, нет объективного взгляда, научного понимания проблем, хода исторического развития. Подчас – откровенная фальсификация. Например, Низами, памятник которому воздвигнут на Каменноостровском проспекте, объявляется великим азербайджанским поэтом. Хотя он по-азербайджански даже не говорил. А обосновывают это тем, что он жил на территории нынешнего Азербайджана – но ведь Низами писал свои стихи и поэмы на персидском языке! Translation:We trained such specialists, but, as shown by our communication with them, there are a lot of nationalistic tendencies there and academic fraud. Apparently it's related to the first years of independence. Their works include nationalist beginnings. Objective perspective, scientific understanding of the problems and timeline of historical developments are lacking. Sometimes there is an outright falsification. For example, Nizami, the monument of whom was erected at Kamennoostrovsk boulevard, is proclaimed Great Azerbaijani poet. Although he did not even speak Azeri. They justify this by saying that he lived in the territory of current Azerbaijan, but Nizami wrote his poems in Persian language!". E) (Russian) Shnirelman, Viktor A. Memory Wars: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. Moscow: Academkniga, 2003 ISBN 5-9462-8118-6. excerpt:: "К этому времени отмеченные иранский и армянский факторы способствовали быстрой азербайджанизации исторических героев и исторических политических образований на территории Азербайджана. В частности, в 1938 г. Низами в связи с его 800-летним юбилеем был объявлен гениальным азербайджанским поэтом (История, 1939. С. 88-91). На самом деле он был персидским поэтом, что и неудивительно, так как городское население в те годы было представлено персами (Дьяконов, 1995. С. 731). В свое время это признавалось всеми энциклопедическими словарями, выходившими в России, и лишь Большая Советская Энциклопедия впервые в 1939 г. объявила Низами "великим азербайджанским поэтом" (Ср. Брокгауз и Ефрон, 1897. С. 58; Гранат, 1917. С. 195; БСЭ, 1939. С. 94). Translation from Russian: "By that time, already mentioned Iranian and Armenian factors contributed to the rapid azerbaijanization of historical heroes and historical political entities on the territory of Azerbaijan. In particular, in 1938, Nizami in connection with his 800-year anniversary was declared a genius(marvelous) Azerbaijani poet (History, 1939. Pp 88-91). In fact, he was a Persian poet, which is not surprising, because the urban population in those years was Persian (Dyakonov, 1995. page. 731). At one time it was recognized by all Encyclopedic Dictionaries of published in Russia, and only the Big Soviet Encyclopedia for the first time in 1939, announced Nizami as a "Great Azerbaijani poet" (Sr. Brockhaus and Efron, 1897. page. 58; Garnet, 1917. page. 195 ; BSE, 1939. p. 94)".
  9. ^ a b c Christine van Ruymbeke, "Science and Poetry in Medieval Persia: The Botany of Nizami's Khamsa", University of Cambridge Oriental Publications (No. 65), 2008. pg 9: "He might have been of Jewish background, or maybe Turkish." pg 18: "Before submitting the tree imagery in the Khamsa to a scientific examination, we first need to define closely as possible what is understood by "botanical knowledge", or more precisely, by "knowledge about trees and fruit", when this is applied to a twelfth century Persian poet." pg 236: "As a result, this study not only proposes a better understanding of nature imagery in the work of a seminal Persian poet, but provides a useful insight into the breadth and depth of education of Medieval poets and their readers."
  10. ^ Iraj Bashiri, "The Teahouse at a Glance" - Nizami's Life and Works, 2000
  11. ^ Rypka, Jan. “Poets and Prose Writers of the Late Saljuq and Mongol Periods”, The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, ed., Published January 1968. Excerpt: "The school, which begins with Qatran (d. 1072), formed a well defined group of teachers and pupils of whom two, Khaqani and Nezami, were to exert a lasting development of their respective genre: Khaqani being the greatest exponent of the qasida and Nezami the most brilliant writer of romantic epics”.
  12. ^ (Chelkowski, P. “Nezami’s Iskandarnameh:”in Colloquio sul poeta persiano Nizami e la leggenda iranica di Alessandro magno, Roma,1977).
  13. ^ Dr. Ali Asghar Seyed Gohrab. "Layli and Majnun: Love, Madness and Mystic Longing", Brill Studies in Middle Eastern literature, Jun 2003. pg 276.
  14. ^ Dick Davis (January 6, 2005), "Vis o Rāmin", in: Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition. Accessed on April 25, 2008.
  15. ^ a b c Chelkowski, P. “Nizami Gandjawi , jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b. Yusuf b. Zaki Muayyad .”Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2008. Brill Online. Excerpt:"Nizami Gandjawi, Djamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b. Yusuf b. Zaki Muʾayyad, one of the greatest Persian poets and thinkers."
  16. ^ Encyclopædia Iranica, "ḴOSROWO ŠIRIN AND ITS IMITATIONS", Paola Orsatti
  17. ^ a b Encyclopædia Iranica, "Eskandar-Nama of Nezami", François de Blois
  18. ^ Encyclopædia Iranica, "Farhad" Heshmat Moayyad
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ a b The Story of Layla and Majnun, by Nizami. Translated Dr. Rudolf. Gelpke in collaboration with E. Mattin and G. Hill, Omega Publications, 1966, ISBN #0-930872-52-5. (see [1] Amazon)
  21. ^ Layli and Majnun: Love, Madness and Mystic Longing, Dr. Ali Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, Brill Studies in Middle Eastern literature, Jun 2003, ISBN 90-04-12942-1 (see [2] Amazon)
  22. ^ Encyclopædia Iranica, "Haft Peykar", François de Blois
  23. ^ The Haft paikar [engl.], Wilson, Charles Edward, London: Probsthain. 1924. (Probsthain's oriental series.). ISBN 0-85382-017-1 (see Amazon).
  24. ^ The Russian philologist Ivan Mikhailovich Steblin-Kamensky, Professor and the Dean of the Oriental Department of Saint Petersburg University comments(“Oriental Department is ready to cooperate with the West”, Saint Petersburg University newspaper, № 24—25 (3648—49), 1 November 2003”). http://www.spbumag.nw.ru/2003/24/1.shtml - Accessed February 2008. Низами писал свои стихи и поэмы на персидском языке. Nizami wrote his poems in Persian language.
  25. ^ AO Tamazishvili. Unknown Pages of Russian Oriental Studies: [Collection] / Ros. Acad. Sciences, Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Peterb. Phil. arch. RAS [status. V. Naumkin (отв. Ed.), NG Romanov, IM Smilyanska]. Moscow: Eastern. lit., 2004. From the History of Study of Nezami-ye Ganjavi in the USSR: around the anniversary - E. Bertels, Stalin, and others. Pp. 173-199. (in Russian) excerpt: "Главным, революционным для отечест¬венной науки результатом этой кампании стало отнесение Низами к поэтам азербайджанским, а его творчества к достижениям азер¬байджанской литературы, в то время как в мировом востоковеде¬нии (а ранее и в советском) доминировал взгляд на него как пред¬ставителя литературы персидской. Точки зрения, что Низами пер¬сидский поэт, и сегодня придерживаются ученые многих стран, в первую очередь — Ирана.". "...while in the realm of the world Oriental Studies (and prior to this in the Soviet as well), the viewpoint of him as a representative of Persian literature. The viewpoint that Nezami is a Persian poet is even today held by the scholars of many countries, specially of Iran."
  26. ^ Dr. Lalita Sinha (Universiti Sains Malaysia, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Comparative Religion). Garden of Love. World Wisdom, Inc, 2008. ISBN 1933316632. page: 24. "Hailed by scholars of Persian literature as the greatest exponent of romantic epic poetry in Persian literature (Levy 1969, XI), Nizami is also referred…."
  27. ^ Tatiana Egorova Soviet Film Music: An Historical Survey, p.186
  28. ^ National Bank of Azerbaijan. National currency: 500 manat. – Retrieved on 24 March 2009.

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