The Persian poet whose Khamsa ("Five Treasures") — including Layla and Majnun and Khosrow and Shirin — set the standard for romantic epic in the Islamic world.
Life
Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209), of the city of Ganja, was among the greatest poets of the Persian language, master of the romantic and narrative masnavi. His Khamsa, a quintet of long poems, wove love, chivalry, wisdom, and mysticism into works — above all the tragic romance of Layla and Majnun — that were imitated and illustrated across Persia, Turkey, and India for centuries. Revered for his imagery and moral depth, he shaped the literary imagination of the whole eastern Islamic world; his verses remain beloved and his figure a point of cultural pride across the region.