Ayaz (Abu al-Najm)

Abu al-Najm Ayaz was the favourite slave of the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. Details of his life are hard to establish, but he was a Turkoman and, if the tradition used by Jalal al-Din Rumi is accepted, of humble origin. The Tarikh-i Bayhaqi reports that Mahmud's successor Mas'ud described Ayaz as his father's 'sneeze', and judged him unsuitable for the governorship of Ray because of his lack of experience of life outside the court. Ibn al-Athir records his death under 449/1057-8. ¹

The Chahar Maqala says that Ayaz was not remarkably handsome, but had a sweet expression and an olive complexion, and was greatly skilled in the arts of pleasing; the tradition is repeated by Sa'di. In Persian literature he appears under many guises: in Sa'di's Gulistan and Bustan a symbol of true love, in the Mathnawi of Jalal al-Din Rumi a type of the perfect man, and in 'Awfi's Jawami' al-hikayat a model of loyalty and good sense. In the Chahar Maqala Mahmud cuts off Ayaz's locks in a fit of passion, and the episode serves 'Unsuri as a display of poetic skill. The Tadhkirat al-Awliya uses an attempt by Mahmud to pass Ayaz off as sultan before Shaykh Abu'l-Hasan Kharaqani as proof of that saint's sagacity. Zulali's Mahmud u Ayaz builds a romance around the relationship of the sultan and his favourite. ¹