() is a collection of speeches authored by

Amir Khusraw Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the period of the Delhi Sult ...

around 1302. The poem is based on the by Nizami, written around 1197, which in turn takes its outline from the earlier epic

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

written by

Firdausi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian ...

around 1010. Like Nizami's ', Khusraw's uses a legend about

Bahram V Bahram V (also spelled Wahram V or Warahran V; ), also known as Bahram Gur (New Persian: , "Bahram the onager unter), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (''shahanshah'') from 420 to 438. The son of the incumbent Sasanian shah Ya ...

Gur as its

frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

and, in the style of ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

'', introduces folktales told by seven princesses. Most famously, Khusraw appears to be the first writer to have added

The Three Princes of Serendip ''The Three Princes of Serendip'' is the English version of the story ''Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo'', published by Michele Tramezzino in Venice in 1557. Tramezzino claimed to have heard the story from one Cristof ...

as characters and the story of the alleged camel theft and recovery. The eight "paradises" in the poem link closely with the Islamic conception of Heaven with its eight gates and eight spaces, each one decorated with a special precious stone or material. Seven of the eight paradises are pavilions constructed for Bahram's "therapy" of storytelling. There is also a link to the

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and garden plan of eight paradises.

The narrative

The narrative commences with the story of Bahram and Dilaram. Later, Bahram has seven differently-coloured domed pavilions built for him within his palace grounds, in which wait seven princesses from various parts of the world. Bahram Gur visits each on a different day of the week and each of them tells him a story: * Saturday – the Black Pavilion – the Indian Princess (The Tale of

the Three Princes of Serendip ''The Three Princes of Serendip'' is the English version of the story ''Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo'', published by Michele Tramezzino in Venice in 1557. Tramezzino claimed to have heard the story from one Cristof ...

) * Sunday – the Yellow Pavilion – the Princess of

Nimruz Nimruz or Nimroz ( Balochi: ; Dari, Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country. It lies to the east of the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran and north of Balochistan, Pakistan, also ...

* Monday – the Green Pavilion – the Slav Princess * Tuesday – the Red Pavilion – the

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

Princess * Wednesday – the Violet Pavilion – the Princess of

Rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. Rum originated in the Caribbean in the 17th century, but today it is produced i ...

* Thursday – the Brown Pavilion – the Arabian Princess * Friday – the White Pavilion – the Princess of

Khwarezm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by ...

Manuscripts

The ', and indeed the whole of the , was a popular work in the centuries after Khusraw's death, not only in India, but in Iran and the Ottoman Empire, and as such was illustrated nearly as frequently as Nizami's ' from the early fifteenth century on.

Translations

* The has never been translated entirely into any language except Russian and Italian. Verse translations of two stories (Tuesday and Friday) by Sunil Sharma have been published. * Lal and Prasada provide a partial direct-to-English translation and commentary of Saturday's tale which introduces

Walters Art Museum manuscript W.623

An illustrated and illuminated manuscript of the poem was part of a Khamsah from 1609 CE produced in

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

Iran. All texts are written in black

nastaʿlīq script ''Nastaliq'' (; ; ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'' or ''Nastaleeq'' (), is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write Arabic script and is used for some Indo-Iranian languages, predominantly Classical Persian, Kashmiri, Punjabi a ...

with chapter headings in red. File:Bahram Gur recognizes Dilaram by the music with which she enchants the animals W.623.jpg, Bahram Gur recognizes Dilaram by the music with which she enchants the animals File:Bahram Gur in the red pavilion W.623.jpg, Bahram Gur in the red pavilion File:Bahram Gur in the sandalwood pavilion W.623.jpg, Bahram Gur in the brown pavilion

Walters Art Museum manuscript W.624

The poem was illustrated in a manuscript probably produced in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

in the late sixteenth CE which is associated with the patronage of

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

(). The manuscript was written in nasta'liq script by one of the greatest calligraphers of the Mughal atelier, Muhammad Husayn al-Kashmiri, honoured with the epithet Zarrin Qalam (golden pen). The manuscript has the names of a number of painters: Lal, Manuhar, Sanwalah, Farrukh, Aliquli, Dharamdas, Narsing, Jagannath, Miskina, Mukund, and Surdas Gujarati. The illuminators are Husayn Naqqash, Mansur Naqqash, Khvajah Jan Shirazi, and Lutf Allah Muzahhib File:Bahram Gur and the Princesses of the seven pavillions.jpg, The princesses of the seven pavilions bow in homage to Bahram Gur. File:Quintet yellow pavilion.jpg, The tale told by the princess of the Yellow Pavilion. Hassan the goldsmith descending from imprisonment in a tower, as his wife goes up to imprisonment. File:Hasht-Bihisht Amir Khusro Met 1.jpg, The Story of the Princess of the Blue Pavilion,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

The image page at metmuseum.org
/ref> File:Quintet sandalwood pavilion.jpg, Bahram Gur visiting the Princess of Arabia in the Brown Pavilion File:Quintet white pavilion.jpg, The story of the Princess of Khwarezm in the White Pavilion.

References

{{Reflist Persian poetry Indian folklore Literary illuminated manuscripts Mughal art Islamic illuminated manuscripts Indian literature Illuminated manuscripts in the Walters Art Museum Indian manuscripts Indian fairy tales 14th-century Persian books