''Haft Peykar'' ( fa, هفت پیکر ''Haft Peykar'') also known as Bahramnameh (, ''The Book of Bahram'', referring to the Sasanian king Bahram Gur) is a romantic epic by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi written in 1197. This poem forms one part of his ''Khamsa''. The original title in Persian ''Haft Peykar'' can be translated literally as "seven portraits" with the figurative meaning of "seven beauties". Both translations are meaningful and the poet doubtless exploited intentionally the ambiguity of the words. The poem was dedicated to the

Ahmadili The AhmadilisClifford Edmund Bosworth, ''The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual'', Columbia University, 1996. pp 198:"The Ahmadilis" ( fa, احمدیلی), also known as the Atabegs of Maragheh (''Atābakān-e Marāghe' ...

ruler of Maragha, Ala-al-Din Korpe Arslan bin Aq-Sonqor. The poem is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work.François de Blois
Haft Peykar
// Encyclopædia Iranica. — 15 December 2002. — V. XI. — pp. 522–524.

Story

The Haft Peykar consists of seven tales. Bahram sends for seven princesses as his brides, and builds a palace containing seven domes for his brides, each dedicated to one day of the week, governed by the day's planet and bearing its emblematic color. Bahram visits each dome in turn, where he feasts, drinks, enjoys the favors of his brides, and listens to a tale told by each.

Editions and translations

A critical edition of the Haft Peykar was produced by Helmut Ritter and Jan Rypka ( Prague, printed Istanbul, 1934) on the basis of fifteen manuscripts of Khamsa and the Bombay lithograph. There is also an uncritical edition by Wahid Dastgerdi ( Tehran, 1936 and reprints) and an edition by Barat Zanjani (Tehran, 1994). More recently, the poem was re-edited by the Azerbaijani scholar T. A. Maharramov ( Moscow, 1987). A poetic German translation of a passage from the poem named ''Bahram Gur and Russian princess'' by orientalist was published in 1832 in Kazan. There are three complete translations in western European languages from original Persian language. First, in 1924 Charles Edward Wilson translated the poem to English in two volumes with extensive notes. Second, Alessandro Bausani in 1967 translated it to Italian. Finally, there is an English version by Julie Scott Meisami published in 1967. There is also an English metatranslation by E. Mattin and G. Hill ( Oxford, 1976). A partial translation was also made by

Rudolf Gelpke Rudolf Gelpke (1928–1972) was a Swiss Islamic scholar. He studied at the University of Basel, where he received his doctorate in Islamic Studies in 1957. Later Gelpke moved to Iran, where he taught at the University of Tehran and afterwards at ...

in German prose ( Zurich, 1959). There is a complete poetic translation in Azerbaijani by (

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

, 1946). There are three complete translations in Russian: a poetic translation by Ryurik Ivnev (Baku, 1947), a poetic translation by (Moscow, 1959), and a prose translation by Rustam Aliyev (Baku, 1983).

Cultural influence

In the early 1940s, to mark the 800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi,

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov planned to write seven songs for the seven beauties of the poem. However, he only wrote two songs: "Sensiz" ("Without You", 1941) and "Sevgili Janan" ("Beloved", 1943).Сафарова З. Узеир Гаджибеков. — Баку: Язычы, 1985. — P. 61. In 1952

composer Gara Garayev composed the ballet '' Seven Beauties'' based on motifs of Nizami Ganjavi's ''Seven beauties''. In 1959 a fountain with a bronze sculpture "Bahram Gur" depicting the hero of the poem killing serpentine dragon at his feet was erected in Baku. In 1979 the Nizami Gəncəvi subway station in Baku was decorated by Azerbaijani painter

Mikayil Abdullayev Mikayil Huseyn oglu Abdullayev (19 December 1921, Baku - 22 August 2002, Baku) was an Azerbaijani painter, a People's Artist of the former USSR since 1963, and creator of a series of paintings entitled ''Through India''. Abdullayev was an alumn ...

with mosaic murals based on the works of Nizami. Three of these murals depict heroes of the ''Seven Beauties'' poem. The opera '' Turandot'' by Giacomo Puccini is based on the story of Tuesday, being told to King Bahram by his companion of the red dome, associated with Mars.

Gallery

File:Brooklyn Museum - Bahram Gur Visits the Dome of Piruza on Wednesday Page from the Haft paykar from a manuscript of the Khamsa of Nizami.jpg, ''Bahram Gur Visits the Dome of Piruza on Wednesday''. Page from the ''Haft Paykar'' from a manuscript of Nizami.

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

References

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Sources

* François de Blois
Haft Peykar
// Encyclopædia Iranica. — 15 December 2002. — V. XI. — pp. 522–524. 1197 works Persian poems Erotic literature Epic poems in Persian Memory of the World Register in Iran