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The Nizami Mausoleum (), built in honor of the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, stands just outside the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan. The mausoleum was originally built in 1947 in place of an old collapsed mausoleum, and rebuilt in its present form in 1991.
During the Russo-Persian War in 1826, a decisive battle between Russian and Persian forces took place near the tomb of Nizami. The Russian forces commanded by General Ivan Paskevich defeated the Persian army and forced it to retreat. Василій Александрович Потто. Кавказская война: Персидская война, 1826–1828 гг. Volume 3. "Кавказский край", 1993. , , p. 130 Russian envoy to Persia, Aleksandr Griboyedov, recorded in his diary a conversation with writer and historian Abbasgulu Bakikhanov, a member of the Russian diplomatic mission, in which Bakikhanov informed him that the Battle of Elisabethpol had occurred in the vicinity of the tomb of Nizami. ФЭБ: Грибоедов. Эриванский поход.
In 1873 Shah of Persia Naser al-Din Qajar, on the way home from his first tour in Europe, passed by the tomb of Nizami. He mentioned in his diary the tomb of Shaykh Nizami by the side of the road at about half a league or more from Ganja, and described it as "a very wretched brick building".J.W. Redhouse. The Diary of H. M. the Shah of Persia, During His Tour Through Europe in A. D. 1873. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. , , p. 416
By the turn of the 20th century, the mausoleum became almost completely ruined. In 1925, the grave of the poet was excavated, and his remains exhumed for reburial at the center of Ganja. However, the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan ordered the reburial of the poet at the same location and the erection of a temporary monument.
In 1940, in connection with construction of a new mausoleum, an archaeological investigation revealed the remains of an ancient mausoleum deep under the ground, dating to the 13th century. The remains of an overground structure were a 19th-century restoration. И. П. Щеблыкин. Памятники азербайджанского зодчества эпохи Низами: материалы. Изд-во АзФАН, 1943, pp. 49–50
The mausoleum was rebuilt in its present form after Azerbaijan regained its independence following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
As part of its large-scale attempts to eradicate any traces of Persian cultural influence, Azerbaijan has removed the Persian-written tiles from the mausoleum.
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