Artistic games with word names; Reflections on one of Nizami's stylistic features

Artistic games with words form the central part of Nizami's aesthetic. The major share of these games are played in Khamsa with the name of fictional characters. With the help of 41 word names, Nizami has performed 400 cases of artistic games. Most items of games have been conducted with Shirin, Shekar, Mahan, Shabdiz, Goor (Bahram) and Leili. Nizami employed literary arrays such as proportion ambiguity, total pun, partial pun, repetition, derivation pun, pseudo-derivation pun, redundant pun, subsequent pun, and difference pun in long vowels (from the most to the least) to run artistic games. Shedding light on these games would reveal the essence of Nizami's art and power. In addition to artistic aesthetics, the poet has followed other objectives too. For instance, with the help of these games, he has supported fictional atmosphere to attract the attention of his readers. Apparently, the poet has deliberately played with the word names, but in some cases the game has been so appropriately that the reader takes it as granted. The high frequency of games with word names is the major stylistic feature of Nizami's works.