Poetry had become a signifier of nationalism more than a hundred years before Nizami’s time. The great poet Abul Qasem Ferdowsi (940-1019) codified the history of Iranian kingship in his Persian national epic, the Shahnama (The book of kings). Presented to the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud in 1010 and spanning approximately 30 years in its production, the Shahnama is composed in New Persian, comprised of more than 50,000 rhyming couplets called masnavi. The epic work celebrates ancient Iranian culture and represents a revival of the Persian language in the region, primarily as a rejection of Arab influence following the mid-seventh-century Islamic conquests of Iran.

Ferdowsi’s Shahnama established Persian masnavi as the gold standard of poetry, functioning as the precedent for later poets throughout the Persianate world. Rulers assembled impressive libraries of handmade manuscripts, showcasing their wealth while also presenting themselves in serious contemplation of proper kingship. From the medieval era onward, it became a sign of breeding and erudition in the Persianate world to be familiar with the major literary works through memorization of poetic passages. New poetry was commissioned by the ruling class, and lengthy passages of classic poetry such as the Shahnama and the Khamsa were recited by storytellers at court, a tradition which continued into the early modern period.

The poet known as Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209) was born Ilyas ibn Yusuf Mu’ayyad in the region of Ganja, once part of Iranian territory (now modern-day Azerbaijan).