Haft Peykar

Haft Peykar ( 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. The poem was dedicated to the Ahmadili ruler of Maragheh, Ala-al-Din Korpe Arslan bin Aq-Sonqor. The poem is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work. It is also believed to be an inspired by an earlier Timurid book, the Shahnameh.

Around the time Haft Peykar was written, there were various ways in which Persian lyric poetry was presented and written. The style we see in Haft Peykar is one of epic literature, where characters change moods and express complex feelings in heroic tales. Here Nizami's hero is searching for a sort of spiritual satisfaction.

Story
Haft Peykar is the story of King Bahram Gur, known for his hunting ability and seven wives. 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. And not only does each bride represent a color and a story, but a deeper meaning. They each have a region, climes of the world, but also virtues and religious significance. It was even thought that the colors of the brides were stages of love in the Sufi traditions. These stages go from the impurity of black to the purity of white. This is one of the most widely discussed messages from the poem is the relationship between a sacred and a profane love. It is believed the Haft Peykar teaches about a pure love in a perspective of needing versus giving.

Editions and translations
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). 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.

There are three complete translations in western European languages from the original Persian language. First, in 1924 Charles Edward Wilson translated the poem to English in two volumes with extensive notes. Wilson's translation was a "literal translation". His use of literal translation of Haft Peykar resulted in an incorrect translation and many missing parts of the story. Second, Alessandro Bausani in 1967 translated it to Italian. Finally, there is an English version by Julie Scott Meisami, published in 1967. This translation was a rhymed version that included explanations to help the readers understand the more hidden and allusive meanings of the text. This English translation was very popular. There is also an English metatranslation by E. Mattin and G. Hill (Oxford, 1976). 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).

Cultural influence
The story of the Seven Beauties presented an allegorical story with a religious significance. Religious symbolism in paintings or illustrations was not widely accepted. At the time, it was common for manuscripts to not be outwardly religious because there was no official religious iconography adopted in Islam, so it is believed Nizami hid the moral and divine messaging in a narrative. This may be thought of as a way that the poem and its illustrations changed the reading of manuscripts.

In the early 1940s, to mark the 800th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi, 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).

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. This statue references the ancient Iranian narrative of the deity Bahram slaying the evil serpent.

In 1979 the Nizami Gəncəvi subway station in Baku was decorated by Azerbaijani painter Mikayil Abdullayev with mosaic murals based on the works of Nizami. 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.

Art style
When the manuscript was first created, Nizami used a style of art commonly used for this time. There were often delicately drawn center figures, with no background. This would emphasize the main characters in the scene. In a way, he coordinated the color palette of the page to what was going on in the scene. An example would be a simple brown color palette for guards in pavilion scenes where they do not seem attentive at all. Since its creation, along with different translations, there have been a variety of art styles used to recreate the famous poem.