The Textual and the Extratextual in Nezami’s Five Treasures

Nezami Ganjavi’s Panj Ganj (Five Treasures) represents five different perspectives on the concept of ideal love. In the Makhzan al-asrar (The Treasure House of Mysteries), in which the element of love is not apparent, a sort of religious idealism is dominant throughout the text and that idealism is itself a sort of romanticism. Combining political and familial realities, Khusraw and Shirin combines romanticism and idealism, an approach that might be referred to as realistic romanticism. Layali and Majnun focuses on human sentimental interactions and exemplifies psychological or lyrical romanticism. Haft Paykar (The Seven Beauties) is an example of fantasy romance. And finally, Iskandarnamah (The Book of Alexander), Nezami’s last work, abandons nationalistic romanticism and promotes a belief in universal brotherhood and equality, which might be conceptualized as socialist or internationalist romanticism.