Khamsa

Khamsa, from the Arabic word meaning “five,” is a label used in classical Arabic and Persian literature to denote a quintet of works. The term can refer to a single author’s five-piece collection or, more broadly, to any five related works assembled as a unit.

The best-known Khamsa is the Persian epic cycle by the 12th‑century poet Nizami Ganjavi, composed in the late 1100s. It is commonly rendered as Khamsa or Khamseh and consists of five long narrative poems: Makhzan al-Asrar (The Treasury of Secrets), Khosrow and Shirin, Layla and Majnun, Haft Paykar (The Seven Beauties), and Eskandar-nameh (The Book of Alexander). The collection blends romance, history, and myth with refined diction and intricate imagery, and it is considered a landmark of Persian literature.

Impact and influence: Nizami’s Khamsa established a durable model for later Persian and Turkic epic poetry, encouraged a rich tradition of manuscript illustration, and influenced poets across Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and South Asian literatures. The work helped shape genre conventions for courtly romance and episodic narrative.

Other uses: Beyond Nizami’s cycle, the term Khamsa is used for other quintets in Arabic and Persian literature, referring to five related works by various authors. Such five-piece collections vary in content, structure, and historical context, but share the underlying idea of a coordinated set of five pieces.