Iranian Poets   Nezami   Elias Abu Mohammad Nezami, the third great Iranian poet and acknowledged master of romantic couplets and Persian poetry was born in the year 1141 A.D. in Ganja, located in the present Azerbaijan Republic, where he started to write his great mathnavi poems known as the Khamsa (the Five Books). Nezami's Khamsa includes the following books: I- Makhzanul-Assrar (Treasure of Mysteries) written in 1166 A.D., II- Khosrow and Shirin completed in 1176 A.D., III- Leili and Majnoon written in 1189, IV- The Eskandarnameh (Book of Alexander) finished in 1191 A.D., IV- His last masterpiece, Haft Peykar (Seven Figures) written in 1199 A.D.     Nezami died in Herat (in today's Afghanistan), in 1204 and is buried in the same city. Nezami lost his father, Yussef, during his childhood. His mother, who was of a noble Kurdish family, does not appear to have survived her husband. Beyond the above short description we know very little about Nezami's life, but we know that he had far better understanding of a poet's duty than the many panegyrists and court poets of the time, including Anvari. Nezami avoided panegyric for courts but following the prevailing fashion of his time he dedicated his poems to contemporary rulers. Nezami's high rank as an original, rare and creative poet is admitted by all critics both Persian and Turkish including Saadi, Hafiz, Jami and Awfi, and his character was equally unrivaled. He was pious, yet singularly devoid of intolerance. He was independent yet gentle and unostentatious, a loving father and husband and a zealous hater of wine. The Makhzanul-Asrar is the shortest and the earliest book in Khamsa and is of quite a different character compared to his other works. Dealing with mystic themes after the fashion of Sanai's Hadiqa or Jalaluddin Rumi's Mathnavi, the book contains a good deal of introductory matter and several discourses dealing with theological or ethical topics.   Example of his poetry "When Farhad heard this message, with a groan From the rock-gully fell he like a stone. So deep a sigh he heaved that thou wouldst say A spear had cleft unto his heart its way. "Alas the wasted labor of my youth! Alas the hope which vain has proved in truth! In tunneled mountain-walls; behold my prize! My labor's wasted: here the hardship lies! I, like a fool, red rubies coveted; Lo, worthless pebbles will my hands instead! What fire is this that thus does me consume? What flood is this that hurls me to my doom? The world is void of sun and moon for me: My garden lacks its box and willow-tree. For the last time my beacon-light has shown; Not Shirin, but the sun from me is gone! Alas for such a sun and such a moon, Which black eclipse has swallowed all too soon! Why am I parted from my mistress dear? Now Shirin is gone, why should I tarry here? Felled to the dust, my cypress quick lies dead: Shall I remain to cast dust on my head? My bird of spring is from the meadow flown, I, like the thunder-cloud, will weep and groan. Beyond death's portals Shirin shall I greet, So with one leap I hasten death to meet! Thus to the world his mournful tale he cried, For Shirin kissed the ground, and kissing died." (Edward Browne, Vol. II, p. 405) As a storyteller, Nezami is a great master. He is considered by critics as "one of the key pillars of Persian literature". He spent most of his life in Ganjeh, his place of birth. He is one of the poets who had his own style, and introduced it to the world of literature. He is the only poet who could excellently achieve the task of telling stories in the form of poetry in such manner before the 13th Century. His words occasionally seem sophisticated due to his scrutiny in creating such contexts and the fact that he uses his delicate imagination in his poetry. The fifth book of Nezami's Khamsa is Eskandarnameh which is divided into Iqbalnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Fortune and Kheradnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Wisdom, altogether comprising about 10,000 verses. In search of everlasting life and wisdom, Alexander, the Great, arrives at the blessed city or Madine'ye Fazeleh (Utopia) in which he sees neither fortifications nor patrols, law enforcement officers, or judges: In the romance of Khosrow and Shirin, sung in iambic hexameters, Nezami follows Ferdowsi's style rather than that of Sanai. The adventures of the Sassanide king Khosrow Parviz and his wife, the beautiful Shirin, and the fate of Farhad, who is in love with Shirin, are handled in a less objective manner, and are treated mostly in a romantic vein. The following piece, describes Farhad's tragic death when upon Khorsow's orders a false rumor was spread that Shirin had died. By that time Farhad had finished digging a canal through the Bisotoon Mountain to Shirin's court in order to receive recompense from her: