page_title: Nizami Ganjavi
section_title: Khosrow o Shirin
hierarchical_section_title: Nizami Ganjavi / Works / The Khamsa or Panj Ganj / Khosrow o Shirin
caption_attribution_description: English: The sculptor, Farhad, left, and a male figure, perhaps Khusrau, right, stand on either side of the canal built to supply Shirin with the milk of goats and cows, taken from the Khamseh of Nizami. On the other side of a small stream stand six goats. A rocky landscape with minimal foliage decorates the background. Text at the top of the page has been overpainted. Painted in opaque watercolour on paper. Out of love for the Persian king, Khusrau, the Armenian queen, Shirin, abandoned her throne and took up residence in the unhealthy region of Kirmanshah. To slake Shirin's thirst for milk, a sculptor named Farhad was employed to fashion a canal that would run from distant pastures and carry the milk of goats and cows to Shirin's palace. The text panels on this page were probably removed when the painting was mounted in an album.
context_page_description: Nizami Ganjavi, Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī, was a 12th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet. Nezāmi 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 and shared by Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kurdistan region and Tajikistan.
context_section_description: A story of pre-Islamic Persian origin which is found in the great epico-historical poems of Shahnameh and is based on a true story that was further romanticized by Persian poets. The story  chosen by Nezami, was commissioned and dedicated to the Seljuk Sultan Toghril II, the Atabek Muhammad ibn Eldiguz Jahan Pahlavan and his brother Qizil Arslan.  It contains about 6,500 distichs in length, the story depicts the love of Sassanian Khosrow II Parviz towards his Armenian princess Shirin.  "Khusrow and Shirin" recounts the story of King Khosrow's courtship of Princess Shirin, and vanquishing of his love-rival, Farhad.  The story has a complex structure with several genres exploited simultaneously; and contains many verbal exchanges and letters, all imbued with lyrical intensity.  Khosrow endures long journeys, physical and spiritual, before returning to Shirin, his true love. They are eventually married, but eventually Khosrow is killed by his son and Shirin commits suicide over the body of her murdered husband. Pure and selfless love is represented here embodied in the figure of Farhad, secretly in love with Shirin, who finally falls victim to the king's ire and jealousy.
  The influence of Vis o Ramin is visible as the poem imitates a major scene (that of the lovers arguing in the snow) from Vis o Rāmin, as well as being in the same meter (hazaj) as Gorgāni's poem.  Nezami's concern with astrology also has a precedent in an elaborate astrological description of the night sky in Vis o Rāmin.  In turn, Nezami's great work had a tremendous influence on later authors and many imitations of this work were made.  With complete artistic and structural unity, the epic of Khosrow o Shirin turned to be a turning point not only for Nizami but for all of Persian literature.
caption: Khusrau stand on either side of the canal built to supply Shirin with the milk of goats and cows, taken from the Khamsa of Nizami
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