But what I most wanted to see, as it was already getting late and I had to catch a late-night flight from Baku airport to New Delhi, was the tomb of the most famous poet and writer of this country, a man who lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the city of Baku, the Great Nizami Ganjavi. A beacon of the region’s literary heritage, he is also the writer of a very famous Persian tale, the story of Laila and Majnu. He was a great romantic poet who brought realism to his stories and his poems.
Nizami Ganjavi is the state poet of Azerbaijan, and his works were popular and revered in 1930s Russia as well. He is a poet most respected in the region for the quality and value of his works. Nizami was orphaned as a child and raised by his maternal uncle, Khwaja Umar. Nizami had three marriages, and two of his wives died prematurely due to ill health and sickness. His most beloved wife was an enslaved Kipchak, and she was his most beloved. He had a son called Mohammad from this wife. Ganjavi was seen as a philosopher who had mastered various streams and thoughts of Islam and was trying to merge them through his works and his writings.
Often described as the prolific Hakim, he was a sage nonetheless who knew not only prophetic in Arabic and Persian but was well-read in the fields of religion, mathematics, history, languages, esoteric arts, medicine, botany, and Islamic studies. He was just a man who was hungry for knowledge, who read and tried to understand many subjects and ideas.
He was the master of the Masnavi style of poetry, which is also called the double-rhymed verses. Some of his main and most renowned verses and writings are:
1. Makhzan Ol Asrar
This story contains twenty discourses, each on a religious and ethical subject and topic. The stories deal with such ethical subjects as theology, mysticism, and the subject of philosophy. The stories discuss spiritual and religious concerns, warning of the vanity of this world and the need to prepare for an afterlife. Maybe that is the reason Ganjavi has such a tomb made in his honor. His Kabar is inside the tomb, which is a huge Minar with a dome on top. His mausoleum is kept inside in the basement, locked up in a marble coffin. People come to pray, and some just come to pay their respects to such a great talent.
2. Khosrow O Shirin
The story is about King Khosrow’s courtship of Queen Shirin. It is 6500 couplets in length as a poem but has a dark and tragic end. Although Shirin marries Khosrow and has a son with him, this son kills Khosrow, his father, and out of despair and sadness, Shirin commits suicide in front of the body of her dead husband and king.
3. Leyli Majnun
This is Nizami’s most celebrated story and work, based on the star-crossed lovers Laila and Majnu, and is 4500 couplets in verse and length. Laila’s father forbids her from meeting Majnu, so he becomes possessed by her and starts dancing and singing for her on the streets. He tries his best and asks others to speak on his behalf, but he is so possessed by her love, the love of Laila, that he evaluates everything in his life with the love of Laila. When he finally realizes that theirs cannot be a union, he becomes naked with rage and runs to the forest, leaving society and being with the beasts of the forest. Majnu spends most of his time writing poetry for Laila, who gets married against her wishes but manages to guard her virginity even after her husband’s steady advances. She then has a secret meeting with Majnu. Laila’s husband then dies, and it seems they could finally be together. Majnu is so possessed by the ideal version of Laila that he goes to the desert to write poems. Laila dies of grief and despair and is finally buried in her bridal gown. When Majnu hears of her death, he comes to her grave and collapses, dying just beside her. That place becomes a pilgrimage ground where people pay respects to the great lovers who would finally be united in heaven.
The Tomb of Ganjavi is fascinating, and one can also visit the Ganja Museum, which is right in front of the tomb. I prayed to the great poet and begged for his blessings, so that just like him, I can also become a great writer and poet who would one day have a tomb of his own.