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Nizami Ganjavi
TheKhamsa orPanj Ganj
Maḵhzan al-asrār Khosrow and Shirin Layla and Majnun Haft Peykar Eskandar-nāma
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TheKhamsa (Persian:خمسه, 'Quintet' or 'Quinary', fromArabic) orPanj Ganj (Persian:پنج گنج, 'Five Treasures') is the main and best known work ofNizami Ganjavi.

TheKhamsa is in five longnarrative poems:

• Makhzan-ol-Asrâr (مخزن‌الاسرار, 'The Treasury or Storehouse of Mysteries'^[1]), 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 bySanai's (d. 1131) monumentalGarden of Truth. The four other poems are medieval romances. Khosrow and Shirin, Bahram-e Gur, andAlexander the Great, who all have episodes devoted to them inFerdowsi'sShahnameh,^[1] 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 thesecond of his four romances, and derived from Arabic sources.^[1] In all these cases, Nezami reworked the material from his sources in a substantial way.^[1]

TheKhamsa was a popular subject for lavish manuscripts illustrated with painted miniatures at the Persian andMughal courts in later centuries. Examples include theKhamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208), created for the Mughal EmperorAkbar in the 1590s. AKhamsa manuscript created forPrince Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor, is now in theKhalili Collection of Islamic Art. Its illustrations of Bahram Gur depict the character as Aurangzeb.^[2]

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  Page from an Illustrated Manuscript of the "Khamsa" by Nizami.Brooklyn Museum.
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  Sassanid king,Bahram Gur is a great favourite in Persian tradition and poetry. Depiction of Nezami's "Bahram and the Indian Princess in the Black Pavilion",Khamsa, mid-16th centurySafavid era.
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  A manuscript from Nizami'sKhamsa dated 1494, depictingMuhammad's journey fromMecca to theDome of the Rock toheaven. ThearchangelGabriel is seen to Muhammad's right with multiple wings.
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  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 16th-century illustration.
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  1543 illustration of theMi'raj from theKhamsa, probably created by the court painter Sultan Muhammad. This version was created for the Persian ShahTahmasp I.^[3]
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  Khosrow and Shirin meet, illustration from Prince Aurangzeb's Khamsa, 1640s

• Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or. 12208)

• Nizami Ganjavi
• Medieval Persian literature
• Persian poetry
• Memory of the World Register in Iran

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