Nezami Ganjavi

See also Chapter 43, 'The Prophecies of Nezami' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

The five works of the Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi (c.1141-c.1209) demonstrate how history, literature, politics, religion and education influence each other. The Treasury of Secrets (Makhzanul Asrar), Shireen Khusro, Layla Majnun, Seven Beauties (Haft Paykar) and Iskandernameh (The Book of Alexander), collectively called the Khamseh – i.e., the Quintet – depict the human civilization as an onward march in which the prosperity of nations depended on showing respect to Prophet Muhammad.

Nezami prophesied about the future of Islam through the epic love story of the Arab beauty Layla and her besotted lover Qais: when the lady was forcibly married to a prince, the lover became known as Majnun or “the Madman” and took to the wilderness where he became friends with beasts, cattle and birds who all gathered around him peacefully. When Layla and Majnun died, they got buried in next to each other and the people wrote an inscription on their tombstone declaring that the lovers shall rise on the Judgment Day to be reunited forever.

If Layla symbolized the collective ego of the Muslin nation – practically the same thing as the soul of all human beings – then her marriage to the prince was an allusion to the introduction of monarchy in Islam. Qais, the lover, represented the common person who was thus denied a direct contact with the collective ego. This contact could now be achieved only through methods that were physiologically too violent and psychologically less suitable to the majority of people, and hence Qais earned the name of “Majnun” while his union with Nature was an analogy for Sufism.

The Judgment Day referred to an anticipated age when the entire Muslim civilization would come to an end. Islam would revive again since God had promised the life of this nation, but monarchy would have to go. Thus Layla and Qais would not remain separated anymore.

This vision of Nezami is reflected in throughout the poetry of Iqbal. The opening lines of ‘March 1907’ (see Chapter 42 in A Novel of Reality) are just one example: “It is now the age of openness. Now Beauty shall be revealed to all and the secret concealed by silence shall come out… Those who wandered in madness shall return to dwellings, bare feet like before but new thorns to bleed them.”