Nizami Ganjavi
One of the most important historical figures in Azerbaijan is Nizami Ganjavi. Nizami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209), also known as Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, was a 12th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī. Nezāmi is regarded as the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature, bringing to the Persian epic a colloquial and realistic style. Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kurdistan area, and Tajikistan all value and share his legacy.
Nezami lived in an era of political instability as well as an intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect; however, little is known about his life, his relationships with his patrons, or the precise dates of his works, as the many legends that have grown up around the poet have colored the accounts of his later biographers. He dedicated his poetry to numerous kings of the region, as was customary for famous writers of the period, but avoided court life.
Because all of Nizami's writings are written in Persian, he has a very high reputation in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, where Persian is the official language. His poet work is well known, particularly in Iran; nevertheless, he is also a well-known poet in Azerbaijan, where his poet's birthplace and mausoleum are located. He is well-known in various countries, particularly in India and Pakistan.
Nezami appeared on the obverse of Azerbaijan's 500 manat banknotes from 1993 to 2006. On the 800th anniversary of his death, the National Bank of Azerbaijan issued a 100 manat gold commemorative coin in his honor in 2008. The Nizami Literary Museum is located in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. The Nizami Mausoleum, created in Nizami's honor, is located just outside of Ganja, Azerbaijan. It's a tall, cylindrical structure surrounded by gardens. The mausoleum was first constructed in 1947 to replace an ancient collapsed mausoleum, and it was restored to its current form when the Azerbaijani Republic achieved independence with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Many cities in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Iran have monuments honoring Nezami, as well as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Udmurtiya (Russia), Kyiv (Ukraine), Beijing (China), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Marneuli (Georgia), Chişinău (Moldova), and Rome (Italy).
