Nizaminin həyatı haqqında çox az məlumat var; şairin həyatı haqqında yeganə məlumat mənbəyi onun əsərləridir ki, bu əsərlərdə də kifayət qədər aydın informasiya verilməmişdir.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rypka|first=Jan|title="Poets and Prose Writers of the Late Saljuq and Mongol Periods", в "The Cambridge History of Iran"|date=January 1968|pages=578}}<blockquote>'''Hakim Jamal al-din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b. Yusuf b. Zaki b. Mu’ayyad Nizami''' a native of Ganja in Azarbaijan… Little is known of his life, the only source being his own works, which in many cases provided no reliable information.</blockquote></ref> Buna görə də Nizaminin adı və şəxsiyyəti ətrafında çoxlu əfsanələr yaranmış və onun bioqrafiyasınabioqrafiyasını osdurmuşdurbəzəmişdir.<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book|last=Ganjavī|first=Niẓāmī|title=The haft paykar: a medieval Persian romance|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-283184-4|pages=305|edition=Julie Scott Meisami|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8vxjAAAAMAAJ&q=Julie+Scott+Meisami+%22The+Haft+Paykar:+A+Medieval+Persian+Romance&dq=Julie+Scott+Meisami+%22The+Haft+Paykar:+A+Medieval+Persian+Romance&hl=en&ei=yjZ4TbXAFsa48gOH7K2gDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA}}<blockquote>"Abû Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu’ayyad, known by his pen-name of Nizami… He lived in an age of both political instability and intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect; but '''little is known about his life, his relations with his patrons, or the precise dates of his works, as the accounts of later biographers are colored by the many legends built up around the poet.'''"</blockquote></ref>

Şairin əsl adı ''İlyas'', atasının adı ''Yusif'', babasının adı ''Zəki'' oros olmuşdur: oğlu ''Məhəmməd''in doğulmasından sonra onun da adı şairin tam adına keçmiş və onun tam adı '''''Əbu Məhəmməd İlyas ibn Yusif ibn Zəki Müəyyəd''''' olmuşdur.<ref name="Blois1" /> Ədəbi [[ləqəb]] kimi şair "''Nizami''" sözünü seçmişdir<ref>{{cite book|last=Scott Meisami|first=Julie|title="The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance (Oxford World's Classics)"|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University|Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-283184-4}}<blockquote>"Abû Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu’ayyad, known by his pen-name of Nizami, was born around 1141 in Ganja, the capital of Arran in Transcaucasian Azerbaijan, where he remained until his death in about 1209."</blockquote></ref> ki, bunu da bəzi təzkirəçilər, şairin ailəsinin ənənəvi olaraq tikməçiliklə məşğul olması ilə izah edirlər; Nizami ədəbiyyatla məşğul olmaq üçün ailə sənətindən imtina etmiş, toxuyucu səbri ilə əsərləri üzərində çalışmışdır.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zarrinkoob|first=Abdolhossein|title=Nizami, a life-long quest for a utopia|date=1977|publisher=G. Bardi, deH'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei|location=Roma|pages=7|edition=Colloquio sul poeta persiano Nizami e la leggenda iranica di Alessandro magno (ROMA, 25-26 MARZO 1975)}}<blockquote>The generous gifts of these royal patrons, which included a Turkish slave-maid with one or two pieces of land, offered a good opportunity for the poet to work on his poetical craft with the patience of a skillful embroiderer. In fact, some writers of Tadhkiras have stated(4) that embroidering was the inherited profession of the poet’s family and that, he himself had renounced it for the sake of poetry, although there is nothing in the poet’s work that might assure us of this point. … But in all these facts, there is nothing to assure us about the poet’s craft.</blockquote></ref> Şairin ''Nizam əd-Din Əbu Məhəmməd İlyas ibn Yusif ibn Zəki ibn Müəyyəd'' olmuşdur.<ref name="Oxford3">{{cite book|last=Scott Meisami|first=Julie|title="The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance (Oxford World's Classics)"|date=1995|publisher=Oxford University|Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-283184-4}}<blockquote>"Abû Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu’ayyad, known by his pen-name of Nizami, was born around 1141 in Ganja, the capital of Arran in Transcaucasian Azerbaijan, where he remained until his death in about 1209. His father, who had migrated to Ganja from Qom in north central Iran, may have been a civil servant; his mother was a daughter of a Kurdish chieftain; having lost both parents early in his life, Nizami was brought up by an uncle. He was married three times, and in his poems laments the death of each of his wives, as well as proferring advice to his son Muhammad. He lived in an age of both political instability and intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect; but little is known about his life, his relations with his patrons, or the precise dates of his works, as the accounts of later biographers are colored by the many legends built up around the poet."</blockquote></ref> Yan Rıpka şairin rəsmi adının ''Hakim Camal əd-Din Əbu Məhəmməd İlyas ibn Yusif ibn Zəki ibn Müəyyəd Nizami'' olduğunu qeyd edir.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rypka|first1=Jan, "Poets and Prose Writers of the Late Saljuq and Mongol Periods"|title="The Cambridge History of Iran"|date=1995|publisher=William Bayne Fisher, Ilya Gershevitch, Ehsan Yar Shater, Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-06936-X, 9780521069366|page=771|pages=578|edition=5 – The Saljuq and Mongol Periods|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=16yHq5v3QZAC&dq=the+cambridge+history+of+iran&source=gbs_navlinks_s|accessdate=24 iyun 2017}}<blockquote>As the scene of the greatest flowering of the panegyrical qasida, southern Caucasia occupies a prominent place in New Persian literary history. But this region also gave to the world Persia’s finest creator of romantic epics. '''Hakim Jamal al-din Abu Muhammad Ilyas b. Yusuf b. Zaki b. Mu’ayyad Nizami''' a native of Ganja in Azarbaijan, is an unrivaled master of thoughts and words, a poet whose freshness and vigor all the succeeding centuries have been unable to dull.</blockquote></ref>