Unity of epic narrative with lyrical introduction in Nizami’s “Khamsa”

Abstract

It is known that there are some common traditional features between the examples of Azerbaijani epic poetry written in Persian and the examples created in Persian literature in ancient times. As in Persian literature, samples of Azerbaijani epic poetry were written in the form of masnavi and according to the existing tradition, the use of other lyric poetry genres among epic poems was not considered acceptable. However, epic narrative forms a unity with lyrical expression in the works included in “Khamsa” by Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209). The poet in his poems such as “Khosrow and Shirin”, “Leyli and Majnun” and “Seven Beauties” also used lyrical elements, which he called ghazal for revealing the inner world of characters and expressing the emotions that they experienced, conditionally. Although these examples do not meet the requirements of the ghazal genre in terms of structure, form and volume, they are absolutely compatible with the ghazal genre in terms of content. In the scenes where such examples are used in the mesnevis included in Khamsa, the dynamics of narrative of the epic poem become weak and the lyrical narration exceeds it. Such a situation observed in "Khamsa" draws attention by Nizami as a way out of the existing epic poetry tradition of the period. Especially in the examples on the further development of our epic poetry in native language, the unity of epic narrative with lyrical expression can be evaluated as the effect of Nizami's poetry.