Poetry
Layli and Majnun
لیلی و مجنون
Nizami Ganjavi · 1188
Synopsis
As children, Qays and Leyli fall in love at school. Leyli's father forbids them to see each other, then refuses to give his daughter; Qays, who sings his love before everyone, becomes Majnun, the possessed, and goes to live naked in the desert among the wild beasts, over which he reigns like a king. Nowfal, a generous chieftain, takes up arms to unite the lovers. Married against her will to Ebn Salam, Leyli refuses herself to her husband and meets Majnun in secret, but they speak to each other only in verse, from afar.
Context
Nizami composed the poem in 1188 at the request of the Shirvanshah Akhsitan, and says that he would have finished it in less than four months had he not had other tasks. The third of the five poems of his Khamsa, it runs to between three thousand six hundred and four thousand six hundred lines depending on the edition. Nizami draws on Arabic anecdotes about Majnun and on the tradition of lovers who stay chaste until death, and turns Nowfal into a knight in the Persian manner. The story was taken up after him by Jami, Navoiy and Fuzuli.
Who it is for
To read, in its first literary form, a love story told throughout the Muslim world.
Prizes and reception
Taken up by many poets, illustrated in the manuscripts of the Khamsa, translated into English as early as 1836 and into French only in 2017.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.