| Haft Peykar | |
|---|---|
| by Nizami Ganjavi | |
 Bahram sees the portraits of the seven beauties. Behzad School, 1479. Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature, Baku | |
| Original title | Haft Peykar |
| Language | Persian |
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| Part of a series on |
| Nizami Ganjavi |
|---|
| The Khamsa or Panj Ganj |
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Haft Peykar (Persian: هفت پیکر Haft Peykar) also known as Bahramnameh (بهرامنامه, The Book of Bahram, referring to the Sasanian emperor Bahram V) is a romantic epic by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi written in 1197. This poem forms one part of his Khamsa.
The original title in Persian Haft Peykar can be translated literally as "Seven Portraits", with the figurative meaning "Seven Beauties". Both translations are meaningful and the poet doubtless exploited intentionally the ambiguity of the words.[clarification needed] The poem was dedicated to the Ahmadili ruler of Maragheh, Ala-al-Din Korpe Arslan bin Aq-Sonqor.[1] The poem is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work.[1]
The Haft Peykar consists of seven tales. Bahram sends for seven princesses as his brides, and builds a palace containing seven domes for his brides, each dedicated to one day of the week, governed by the day's planet and bearing its emblematic color. Bahram visits each dome in turn, where he feasts, drinks, enjoys the favors of his brides, and listens to a tale told by each.[2]
| Day | Planet | Color of the dome | Land of the princess | Name | Story |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Saturn | Black | India | Furak | The Unfulfilled Love |
| Sunday | Sun | Yellow | Turkestan | Yaghma Naz | The King who did not want to marry |
| Monday | Moon | Green | Khwarazm | Naz Pari | The Lovesick Bishr |
| Tuesday | Mars | Red | Saqaliba | Nasrin-Nush | Turandot's Riddles |
| Wednesday | Mercury | Turquoise | Maghreb | Azarbin (Azar-Gun) | Mahan and the Madman |
| Thursday | Jupiter | Sandal | Rûm | Humay | Good and Evil |
| Friday | Venus | White | Iran | Diroste | Tribulations of the Lovers |
A critical edition of the Haft Peykar was produced by Helmut Ritter and Jan Rypka (Prague, printed Istanbul, 1934) on the basis of fifteen manuscripts of Khamsa and the Bombay lithograph. There is also an uncritical edition by Wahid Dastgerdi (Tehran, 1936 and reprints) and an edition by Barat Zanjani (Tehran, 1994).[1] More recently, the poem was re-edited by the Azerbaijani scholar T. A. Maharramov (Moscow, 1987).
A poetic German translation of a passage from the poem named Bahram Gur and Russian princess by orientalist Franz Erdmann was published in 1832 in Kazan.[3]
There are three complete translations in western European languages from original Persian language. First, in 1924 Charles Edward Wilson translated the poem to English in two volumes with extensive notes.[4] Second, Alessandro Bausani in 1967 translated it to Italian. Finally, there is an English version by Julie Scott Meisami published in 1967.[5] There is also an English metatranslation[clarification needed] by E. Mattin and G. Hill (Oxford, 1976).[1] A partial translation was also made by Rudolf Gelpke in German prose (Zurich, 1959). There is a complete poetic translation in Azerbaijani by Məmməd Rahim (Baku, 1946). There are three complete translations in Russian: a poetic translation by Ryurik Ivnev (Baku, 1947), a poetic translation by Vladimir Derzhavin (Moscow, 1959), and a prose translation by Rustam Aliyev (Baku, 1983).
In the early 1940s, to mark the 800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi,[6] Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov planned to write seven songs for the seven beauties of the poem. However, he only wrote two songs: "Sensiz" ("Without You", 1941) and "Sevgili Janan" ("Beloved", 1943).[6]
In 1952 Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev composed the ballet Seven Beauties based on motifs of Nizami Ganjavi's Seven beauties.
In 1959 a fountain with a bronze sculpture "Bahram Gur" depicting the hero of the poem killing serpentine dragon at his feet was erected in Baku.[7] This statue references the ancient Iranian narrative of the deity Bahram slaying the evil serpent.
In 1979[8] the Nizami Gəncəvi subway station in Baku was decorated by Azerbaijani painter Mikayil Abdullayev with mosaic murals based on the works of Nizami.[9] Three of these murals depict heroes of the Seven Beauties poem.
The opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini is based on the story of Tuesday, being told to King Bahram by his companion of the red dome, associated with Mars.[10]
