The Importance of Muhammad Ibn Qawam Balkhi's Description in Understanding the Contents of Nezami's Makhzan Al-Asrar

Abstract

There has always been a great deal of discussion and interest surrounding Nezami's Makhzan Al-Asrar poem. Among the earliest descriptions of one thousand and three hundred verses, Muhammad Ibn Qawam Balkhi's description (8th century AH) is one of the earliest. Despite some limitations, Muhammad Ibn Qawam Balkhi's description carefully explores several implications, verses, narrations, and astrological and medical terms. The present study discusses ten verses of Nezami's Makhzan Al-Asrar based on Qawam Balkhi's description, and some semantic aspects or implications are discussed that may be useful in describing the verses. Several other commentators have also criticized the meaning and interpretation of these ten verses.

Keywords

• makhzan al-asrar
• nezami ganjavi
• qawam balkhi