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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

Impact and influence: Nizami’s Khamsa established a durable model for later Persian and Turkic epic poetry,

Other uses: Beyond Nizami’s cycle, the term Khamsa is used for other quintets in Arabic and Persian

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.
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.
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.