Nizami's Khamsa

The Khamsa ("Quintet") is the collective name of five long poems Nizami wrote in Persian between about 1170 and 1200: The Treasury of Mysteries, Khosrow and Shirin, Leyli and Majnun, The Seven Beauties and the Iskandarnameh.

They explore love, the just ruler and a person's spiritual perfection. In The Seven Beauties King Bahram listens to tales told by seven princesses in seven domes; the Iskandarnameh describes the dream of an ideal society.

The Khamsa inspired later poets such as Navoi, Jami and Amir Khusrow Dehlavi to write their own quintets. Its manuscripts are kept in the world's great libraries and adorned with some of the finest miniatures.