The Story of The Seven Princesses

The story of the Seven Princesses, the most important part of the “Haft Paykar” (The Seven Beauties) by the Azerbaijani poet Nizami (1141-1202) a precious jewel of oriental narrative art, to be compared only with the most beautiful stories out of Thousand and one Nights.

On the seven days of one week each of the seven princesses tells her tale to King Bahram, their husband, each tale being of the same magical beauty as the miniatures which illustrate the book. Each of the princesses comes from a different country, each has been bom under a different star and lives in a different coloured pavilion of the Royal Palace.The symbolic meaning of their stars and of the colours of their pavilions is artfully interwoven with their stories which are meaningfully connected with each other. “The Story of Unfulfilled Love” for instance, which the Indian Princess tells to the King, all dressed in black in the black pavilion of Satumus, is a tragic one revealing all happiness to be nothing but an illusion; while “the Story of the Tribulation of the Lovers”, vividly told by the Friday-Princess in the white pavilion of Venus, reminds us of the gay sensuality of tales by Boccaccio and Balzac.