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khamseh
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khamseh

Persian and Turkish literature
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Also known as: khamsa
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Also spelled:
Khamsa

khamseh, in Persian and Turkish literature, a set of five long epic poems composed in rhyming couplet, or mas̄navī, form. Khamseh takes its name from the five great epic poems written by Neẓāmī (q.v.; d. 1209) and entitled Khamseh (“The Quintuplet”). The first of these five poems, all of which were composed in the mas̄navī form, is the didactic work Makhzan ol-asrār (The Treasury of Mysteries); the next three are traditional love stories; and the fifth, the Eskandar-nāmeh, records the adventures of Alexander the Great. Inspired by Neẓāmī’s influential model, several other notable poets, including Amīr Khosrow of Delhi (1253–1325) and ʿAlī Shīr Navaʾī (1441–1501), wrote khamsehs in Persian and in Turkish.