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Transcendence and Ruin: The Many Colors of Love in Nizami's Haft Paykar
Abstract
The "Haft Paykar", one of the five 'treasures' of Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209), is a highly elaborate romance that unpacks the natural order of Creation within its rich symbolism and multi-tiered structure. At its core is an investigation of Love as the primary evidence and agent of God's will within the natural world, following the Neoplatonist thought of Plotinus, Suhrawardi, and Ibn Sina. Although love, as a derivative of the divine essence, was ultimately a positive force, it could be subverted and lead to the lover's demise if it upset the natural hierarchy of reason over body. Nizami explores this issue in the middle section of the Haft Paykar, a period of reflection and repose for the hero, Bahram-i Gur, who retires to his palace to hear stories from his seven queens, seized from the seven climes of the world. Each story bears a cosmological significance, with correspondences to the seven planets, the seven days of the week, and seven colors, which all illustrate the myriad of ways love could either elevate the spirit towards God or enslave it to the demands of the body. While the black love of the unknown and unknowable could compel the lover to probe the secrets of divinity, only the white love of purity could illuminate the lover towards the correct orientation of his desire. Red love, the color of action and potency, could portend great bloodshed, but might ultimately also overcome impossible odds, while green and turquoise could respectively lead the lover down paths of patience and reward, or greed and misfortune. This paper will focus on the two colors most opposed to each other, the stories of the Black and White Domes, which open and close the sequence, to consider in detail two different attitudes towards love which may be surprisingly more ambivalent and even counter-intuitive than the surface black-and-white dichotomy might suggest. Shorter readings of the Red, Green, and Blue Domes will further explore this symbol of Love within Nizami's moral and religious world-view.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Azerbaijan
Iran
Sub Area
13th-18th Centuries