Cultural Consular Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamabad.
Hakim Nizami is the great Persian poet and novelist, who was born in the 6th century. His name was “Ilyas” and “Kaniya” was “Abu Muhammad”. According to some people he was called “Nizamuddin” or “Jamaluddin”. He considered himself a great spiritual miraculous and messianic personality. Historians differ on his date of birth and death, but his poems show that he was born in 530 AD and died in 614 AD. The reason for Nizami’s fame in Persian is the creation of “Mukhmas”.
His “Makhmas” is interpreted as “Panj Ganj” (Five Treasures).In narration of novels; he was superior to many poets, who followed him. Hakim Nizami is a brilliant and capable poet as well as a well-known patriot. The poems he has written about the sacred name of the homeland (Iran) are like a shining essence in his precious and immortal writings. His first “Masnavi”, “Makhzan-ul-Israr”, contains 2260 poems. This “Masnavi” was written by Hakim Nizami a few days before his 40 years age and it is one of the most important “Masnavi” in Persian language, which includes twenty articles on sermons and wisdom.
His second “Masnavi” is called “Khosrou” and “Shirin”, which Nizami completed in 576 AD and contains 6500 poems of “Atabak Shams-ud-Din Muhammad”, which he presented for a wrestler known as “Ibn Eldugz”. HIS third, poetry collection is “Laila” and “Majnoon”, written by Nizami in the year 584 AD, containing 4700 poems. It was compiled in the name of “Sherwanshahd Abul Muzaffar Akhtan bin Manuchehr”. Another “Masnavi” is “Bahram Nama” or “Haft Gnmbad” which the poet has named on the “Aluddin Kirp Arsalan”, King of “Maragha”. This “Masnavi” contains 5136 poems and has written about the story of “Bahram Gore”, one of the most famous Sassanid stories.
Nizami’s last “Masnavi” is “Iskander Namah”, which consists of two parts: “Sharaf Namah” and “Iqbal Namah”. This “Masnavi” is named on “Atabak Azam Nasruddin Abu Bakr Ibn Muhammad Jahan Pahlawan” which consists of 10,500 poems. In addition to “Khumsa”, he has also compiled a “Diwan” of about 20,000 poems, which’s only a few poems are currently available. Nizami has born in a prosperous family, a study of his works and ideas reveals that he spent his youth in learning the Holy Qur’an and religious education, as well as in seeking the intellectual and narrative information of his time.
He got education in the many subjects of his time and was well versed in many sciences of his time. Due to his skill and extensive knowledge, has given him the title of “Hakim Nizami”. The most important feature of his poetic style is his innovation. Due to writing five “Masnavi” in five different styles, the great poets have written “Mukhmas” by followed him. His poetry style and his contemporaries’ poetry style is considered between Khorasani and Iraqi style. If we divide Persian poetry into three styles or schools (Khorasani, Iraqi, Indian), we can say that the characteristics of the Iraqi school are more prominent in their style of expression.
Nizami is one of the famous poets who presented ordinary life imagination of the people in his poems and reflected the complete morals and habits of the people of his time. His poetry represents different sections of society and is a mixture of good and evil, ugliness and beauty of the society. In creating his ideas, he has tried to describe the social events and habits as well as the common flaws and ugliness of his time in a simple, easy, understandable and comprehensible way for the common people. After Ferdowsi, Nizami rearranged his fifth “Masnavi” under the name of “Iskandernama”, which is in fact a continuation of Ferdowsi’s work.
This book consists of two parts: “Sharafnameh” and “Iqbalnameh”. This “Masnavi” written fora famous contemporary poet, “Atabak Azam, Nasruddin Abu Bakr bin Muhammad Jahan Pahlawan, Atabakan” who was from Azerbaijan. The last collection out of the five collection of Nizami, is the “Iskandernama”, which consists of two parts: “Sharafnameh”, which has 6800 poems and the other part is “Iqbal Namah” or “Kherdnameh”, which consists of 3700 poems that is named on “Nasruddin Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Eldigs”, an examination of Hakim Nizami’s life reveals that he was an undisputed expert of the Persian language and a leader of Persian novelist.
Like “Saadi”, “Nizami Ganjavi” also has succeeded in novelizing a special and unique style and method. Although Hakim Nizami did not start novel writing in Persian, yet he was the only poet who took allegorical poetry to the highest level by the end of 6th century AH. Hakim Nizami’s choice of appropriate words and phrases and his uniqueness in creation of new themes and new collections and his high imagination created a new style in Persian poetry, so that Hakim Nizami could be considered as one of the greatest poets of Iran and he Keep his name unique between his fans. Nizami is the greatest poet of Persian literature. You can say that Hakim Nizami is unique to express happy moments, his language is sweet and his style is pleasant, describing the moments of the war, he has given the color of song to his poems. Hakim Nizami was bound to ethics; he is an expert in Sufi poetry, Persian literature and love stories.