Nizami Ganjavi’s “Iskandarnameh”: Honor of the Azerbaijani literature

Abstract

The call for intelligence, humanism and justice, that began with the “Treasury of
Mysteries” of the great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi, have maden inroads in realizing its
greatest aim. From this perspective, “Iskendernameh” is a magnificent and socially and artistically
generalized consequence of the genius poet's creative ideas. Nizami revived the ancient Greek
science and culture with this work, and brought it into large-scale literary milleu and artistic work
by harmonizing the topic of justice and humanity with Azerbaijani thinking and reality. In this
work, the poet encapsulated the issues that worried him and made him think throughout his life, and
acted as a true scientist and thinker before us.
He did not replicate any of the scientific or literary works he cited, and as in “Leyli and Majnun”,
he created a new idea-content from the certain motives in a different direction. Nizami Ganjavi with
his epopee “Iskendername” preserved not just Azerbaijani literature, but also Eastern literature from
the panegric, shahnameh, and chronicle.