Nozhat al-Majales

Noz'hat al-Majāles (Persian: نزهة المجالس‎‎ "Joy of the Gatherings/Assemblies") is an anthology which contains around 4,100 Persian quatrains by some 300 poets of the 5th to 7th centuries AH (11th to 13th centuries AD) of the present day country of Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. The anthology was compiled around the middle of the 7th century AH (13th century) by the Persian poet Jamal al-Din Khalil Shirvani. Jamal al-Din Khalil Shirvani (Persian: جمال خلیل شروانی‎‎) compiled his anthology in the name of 'Ala al-Din Shirvanshah Fariborz III (r. 1225-51), son of Goshtasp. The book was dedicated to Fariboz III.

The book is arranged by subject in 17 chapters divided into 96 different sections. The anthology also includes 179 quatrains and an ode (qasida) of 50 distiches written by Jamal Khalil Shirvani himself. The book is preserved in a unique manuscript copied by Esmail b. Esfandiyar b. Mohammad b. Esfandiar Abhari on July 31, 1331.

A significant importance of Nozhat al-Majales is that it contains quatrains from poet whose collected works are no longer extant. For example, it contains thirty-three quatrains by Omar Khayyam and sixty quatrains by Mahsati. These are among the oldest and most reliable collections of their works. Nozhat al-Majales also contains quatrains from such scholars and mystics as Avicenna, Attar of Nishapur, Sanai, Afdal al-Din Kashani, Ahmad Ghazali (the mystic brother of al-Ghazali), Majd al-din Baghdadi (a major figure of traditional Sufism born in Baghdadak in Great Khorasan) and Ahmad Jam, who had never been recognized as major poets. It also contains quatrains from writers and poets who are not known for their quatrains such as Asadi Tusi, Nizami Ganjavi, Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani and Qabus. Some quatrains are even narrated from statements and rulers such as Fariboz III Shirvanshah, the Seljuq Sultan Tugrul and Shams ad-Din Juvayni.

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