Nizami-i Arudi of Samarqand

Nizami-i 'Arudi-i Samarqandi, usually called Nizami-i 'Arudi, was a Persian prose writer of the 6th/12th century. The Encyclopaedia of Islam knows him chiefly through his book Chahar maqala, "Four Discourses", which it also records under the title Majma' al-nawadir and dates to about 551/1156. ¹ The museum holds no biography of him from the sources read for this page. The encyclopaedia has no article of its own on him in the volumes searched, so what follows is gathered from the places where its authors rely on him, and nothing is added from memory.

The article on 'Umar Khayyam names Nizami-i 'Arudi as one of two contemporaries of Khayyam, together with 'Ali b. Zayd al-Bayhaqi, from whom the dates of the scholar's life and a sense of his renown can be recovered. ¹ According to the article, Nizami was in Khayyam's service in 506/1112 and heard his master predict his own death in circumstances that later came true. ¹ It adds that, according to Nizami, at Marw in 508/1114 Khayyam's reputation exceeded that of all the astrologers and astronomers at the sultan's court. ¹

In 530/1135 Nizami had occasion to visit Khayyam's tomb, an experience the article calls clearly described and moving. One manuscript says four years had passed since Khayyam's death, while another gives a longer interval. ¹ The article reads the three appreciative accounts of Khayyam in Nizami's chapter on astronomers and astrologers as inspired by his admiration for his one-time master. ¹

In its article on the poet Farrukhi, the encyclopaedia says that Nizami-i 'Arudi gives the most reliable information on Farrukhi's early life. Following Nizami, it recounts that Farrukhi showed his gifts for poetry and music early, and that the recitation of two of his finest poems before the amir of Saghaniyan won that prince's favour. ² The same article lists Nizami's Chahar maqala, in the translation by E. G. Browne and in the edition of Mu'in, among its sources. ³

The sources read give no date of birth or death for Nizami-i 'Arudi, and the dates above are those of the events he witnessed or of his book, not of his life. The nisba Samarqandi points to Samarqand, but the passages read do not say where he was born or lived, apart from his presence at Marw in 508/1114. ¹ A fuller entry would need the introduction to a critical edition of the Chahar maqala or a dedicated reference article.

• Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 10, article 'Umar Khayyam, and vol. 2, article Farrukhi.