Alisher Navoiy and the khamsa tradition

A khamsa is a set of five dastans, first created in the East by Nizomiy Ganjaviy, who wrote “Makhzan ul-asror”, “Khusrav and Shirin”, “Layli and Majnun”, “Haft paykar” and “Iskandarnoma” between 1173 and 1201, which were later joined under the name “Panj ganj”. Khusrav Dehlaviy (1253–1325) wrote his own “Khamsa” in 1299–1301, continuing the tradition. To be called a khamsa the first dastan had to be in the spirit of advice and morals, the second about Khusrav and Shirin, the third about Layli and Majnun, the fourth about King Bahrom and the fifth about Iskandar. Navoiy created his “Khamsa” not in Persian but in his mother tongue – Turkic – and aimed to write a new, original work without blindly imitating his predecessors. He wrote the five dastans in 1483–1485, in two years, in over 51,000 lines: “Hayrat ul-abror” in 1483, “Farhod and Shirin”, “Layli and Majnun” and “Sab’ayi sayyor” in 1484, and “Saddi Iskandariy” in 1485. The questions raised in the 20 maqolats of “Hayrat ul-abror” are answered by the later dastans through events.