Nizami's Khamsa

Timeline

1. c. 1166–1176Ganja · AzerbaijanNizami established his poetic reputation with the didactic masnavi The Treasury of Secrets; its twenty stories combine Sufi ethics with courtly admonition, serving as the intellectual prelude of the five-poem cycle.
2. c. 1176–1186Ganja · AzerbaijanThe poet retold the love legend of the Sasanian king Khusrow and the Armenian princess Shirin, using psychological portrayal and courtly etiquette to elevate historical material into a model love narrative poem.
3. 1188Ganja–Shirvan cultural sphere · CaucasusAt the request of the Shirvanshah, Nizami rewrote the Arabic folk tale of Layla and Majnun as a Persian courtly legend; the theme of mad love thereafter became a literary archetype across the Islamic world.
4. c. 1194–1197Ganja · AzerbaijanNizami completed the cycle with Alexander's philosopher-king image and the story of Bahram's seven queens; the five works were bound together in manuscripts as the Khamsa, becoming the standard model of Persian narrative poetry.