UCLA Department: Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (Persian Studies)
Country of Study: France
A classic of world literature, the 12th-century CE Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi’s Quintet (Khamse) of narrative poems (masnavi) has been the subject of renewed scholarly interest by Persianists in the past few years. This research centers around reading what is by far the most imaginative of his narrative poems, The Seven Figures (Haft Paykar). Instead of relying on allegorizing approaches, the project employs the motif of transformation to read Ganjavi’s text, seeking to provide a groundwork for a modern critical edition of the work.