Study of the confrontation between the beginner lover and the end lover in the allegory of Salim Baghdadi’s acquaintance with Majnun from Nizami’s Khamsah and the illustrated manuscript belonging to 835 AH

While the predominant reliance of painting studies is only on visual analysis of the artworks, love is one of the important themes of Persian mysticism and literature and has had a wide expression in the Iranian paintings. The present study is a comparative one between Nizami’s Khamsah and an illustrated manuscript in 835 AH related to the allegory of Salim Baghdadi’s acquaintance with Majnun, and the views of Ahmad Ghazali. Since it is not possible to vote for a realistic or mystical picture without considering the literary and mystical text, it has been attempted in this article to answer the question: To which allegory of Layla and Majnun Masnavi of Nizami’s Khamsah does the painting of Salim Baghdadi’s acquaintance with Majnun from illustrated manuscript in 835 AH refer to? and what is the interpretation of this allegory based on Islamic mysticism and what is the meaning of the mystical points mentioned in this allegory?

The aim of this study is to compare the aforementioned painting with Iranian Islamic literature and mysticism.

The present study has been conducted using an interpretive-analytical method and research information has been collected through library resources.

The main theme of the mentioned allegory is the difference between the beginning and the end of love. Since, historically, the closest mystic to the time of Nizami Ganjavi, who had comprehensive and complete comments on divine love, is Ahmad Ghazali and also due to the significant similarity between their thoughts regarding this love, the mystical aspect of the current study has been based on the book Savaneh-al-Oshagh (Lovers’ events). The present research first seeks to reach the opinion that the mentioned painting has a mystical aspect. In the next step, the allegory mentioned in this picture from Nizami’s Khamsah is interpreted based on the views of Ahmad Ghazali, and the difference between the moods of the lover in the beginning and the end of love is expressed.