Nizami Ganjavi
Persian poet
Nizami Ganjavi (Persian: نظامی گنجوی, romanized: Niẓāmī Ganjavī, lit. 'Niẓāmī of Ganja'; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī, was a 12th-century poet. Nizami is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. His heritage is widely appreciated in Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kurdistan region and Tajikistan.
Life
Born into a Persian family, his personal name was Ilyas and his chosen pen-name was Nizami (also spelled Nezami). He was born of an urban background in Ganja (Seljuq empire, now Republic of Azerbaijan) and is believed to have spent his whole life in the South Caucasus. According to De Blois, Ganja had a predominantly Iranian population at the time. The Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi (c. 1200 – 1271) mentions that "This city [Ganja] was densely populated with Iranians and a small number of Christians". Because Nizami was not a court poet, he does not appear in the annals of the dynasties.
“Nizami Ganjavi” enters the record as persian poet. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nizami, Ganjavi and Persian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q234908. VIAF identifies the subject as 2474895. The Library of Congress control number is n80115655. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1141, 1209, 1200 and 1271.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nizami Ganjavi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.