Layla and Majnun

Layla & Majnun ( , 'Layla's Mad Lover';) is an old story of Arabic origin, about the 7th-century Najdi Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (later known as Layla al-Aamiriya). 
"The Layla-Majnun theme passed from Arabic to Persian, Turkish, and Indian languages", most famously through the narrative poem composed in 584/1188 by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, as the third part of his "Khamsa". It is a popular poem praising their love story. Lord Byron called it "the Romeo and Juliet of the East."
Qays and Layla fell in love with each other when they were young, but when they grew up Layla's father didn't allow them to be together. Qays became obsessed with her. His tribe Banu 'Amir and the community gave him the epithet of "Majnūn" ( "crazy", lit. "possessed by Jinn"). Long before Nizami, the legend circulated in anecdotal forms in Iranian "akhbar". The early anecdotes and oral reports about Majnun are documented in "Kitab al-Aghani" and Ibn Qutaybah's "Al-Shi'r wa-l-Shu'ara'." The anecdotes are mostly very short, only loosely connected, and show little or no plot development. Nizami collected both secular and mystical sources about Majnun and portrayed a vivid picture of the famous lovers. Subsequently, many other Persian poets imitated him and wrote their own versions of the romance. Nizami drew influence from Udhrite love poetry, which is characterized by erotic abandon and attraction to the beloved, often by means of an unfulfillable longing.
Many imitations have been contrived of Nizami's work, several of which are original literary works in their own right, including Amir Khusrow Dehlavi's "Majnun o Leyli" (completed in 1299), and Jami's version, completed in 1484, amounts to 3,860 couplets. Other notable reworkings are by Maktabi Shirazi, Hatefi (d. 1520), and Fuzûlî (d.1556), which became popular in Ottoman Turkey and India. Sir William Jones published Hatefi's romance in Calcutta in 1788. The popularity of the romance following Nizami's version is also evident from the references to it in lyrical poetry and mystical mathnavis—before the appearance of Nizami's romance, there are just some allusions to Layla and Majnun in divans. The number and variety of anecdotes about the lovers also increased considerably from the twelfth century onwards. Mystics contrived many stories about Majnun to illustrate technical mystical concepts such as "fanaa" (annihilation), "divānagi" (love-madness), self-sacrifice, etc. Nizami's work has been translated into many languages. Arabic-language adaptations of the story include Shawqi's play "The Mad Lover of Layla".
Lineage of Qays and Layla.
Qays is the uncle of Layla and she is the daughter of Qays' cousin. Both Qays and Layla through their lineage is descended from the tribe of Hawazin, then descended to the tribe of Banu Ka'b (the patriarch Ka'b), which is also related to the direct lineage to the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam. Therefore, they are all are descendants of Adnan, who is Ishmaelite Arab descendant of Prophet Isma'il (Ishmael), son of Ibrahim (Abraham). Their lineage is narrrated from Arabic records as followed:
Qays.
Qays' lineage is: Qays bin Al-Mulawwah bin Muzahim bin ʿAds bin Rabīʿah bin Jaʿdah bin Ka'b bin Rabīʿah bin ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿa bin Muʿawiyah bin Bakr bin Hawāzin bin Mansūr bin ʿAkramah bin Khaṣfah bin Qays ʿAylān bin Muḍar bin Nizār bin Maʿad bin ʿAdnan.
He is the "ʿĀmirī" (descended from Banu Amir) of the Hawāzin (العامري الهوازني, "al-ʿĀmirī 'l-Hawāzinī").
In Arabic:
قيس بن الملوّح بن مزاحم بن عدس بن ربيعة بن جعدة بن كعب بن ربيعة بن عامر بن صعصعة بن معاوية بن بكر بن هوازن بن منصور بن عكرمة بن خصفة بن قيس عيلان بن مضر بن نزار بن معد بن عدنان
Qays was born around 645 AD (AH 24 in the Hijri) in the Najd till his death around 688 AD (AH 68 in the Hijri) during the succession of the fourth Umayyad caliph Marwan I and the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in the 1st century of the Hijri in the Arabian Desert.
Qays is one of the two Al-Qaisayn poets "Al-Mutaymīn" (Arabic: المتيمين), and the latter is "Qays bin Dharīḥ" (قيس بن ذريح), dubbed ""Majnūn Lubna" (مجنون لبنى)". It is narrated by a woman that Qays died in the year 68 AH (corresponding to 688 AD), and he was found lying among stones (where Layla was buried) while he was dead, and his body was carried to his family.
Layla.
Layla's lineage is: Laylā bint Mahdī bin Saʿd bin Muzahim bin ʿAds bin Rabīʿah bin Jaʿdah bin Ka'b bin Rabīʿah bin Hawāzin bin Mansūr bin ʿAkramah bin Khaṣfah bin Qays ʿAylān bin Muḍar (bin Nizār bin Maʿad bin ʿAdnan).
She was called "Umm Mālik (أم مالك)".
In Arabic:
ليلى بنت مهدي بن سعد بن مزاحم بن عدس بن ربيعة بن جعده بن كعب بن ربيعة بن هوازن بن منصور بن عكرمة بن خفصه بن قيس عيلان بن مضر
Layla was born around 648 AD (AH 28 in the Hijri) in the Najd, where the date of death unknown, during the succession of the fourth Umayyad caliph Marwan I and the fifth Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in the 1st century of the Hijri in the Arabian Desert.
Layla is born four years after Qays in a town called an-Najūʿ(النجوع) in the tribe of Banu Amir of Qays of the Hawāzin, which the town is later called by her name "Layla" today, and is also the capital of Al-Aflaj Province in Riyadh Region.
Location.
It is believed by narration that Qays and Layla is born in the province of Al-Aflaj in Saudi Arabia and where the town of "Layla" has descended from also.
"Jabal Al-Toubad" (جبل التوباد), located in the city of Al-Aflaj, which in turn is located 350 km southwest of the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. "Jabbar" (جبار), in particular, is located near the village of Al-Ghayl (الغيل), in the center of "Wadi Al-Mughal" (وادي المغيال). This hill witnessed the love story of Qais bin al-Mulawwah and his cousin Laila al-Amiriya, that was in the 65th year of the Hijri (685 AD) during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan.
The Persian poet Nasir Khusraw traveled and visited both the town "Layla" in the 5th century AH (1009 CE – 1106 CE) and described the town accurately which in presence of the hill "Jabal Al-Toubad", and described the misery that it had turned into as he spent a few months there, which the situation in the region changed after was overwhelmed by poverty, internal strife and insecurity.
Story.
Qays ibn al-Mullawah fell in love with Layla al-Aamiriya. He soon began composing poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. His unselfconscious efforts to woo the girl caused some locals to call him "Majnun." When he asked for her hand in marriage, her father refused because it would be a scandal for Layla to marry someone considered mentally unbalanced. Soon after, Layla was married to another noble and rich merchant belonging to the Thaqif tribe in Ta'if. He was described as a handsome man with reddish complexion whose name was Ward Althaqafi. The Arabs called him Ward, meaning "rose" in Arabic.
When Majnun heard of her marriage, he fled the tribal camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up hope for his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla is generally depicted as having moved to a place in Northern Arabia with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. In some versions, Layla dies of heartbreak from not being able to see her would-be lover. Majnun was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 AD, near Layla's grave. He had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him.
Many other minor incidents happened between his madness and his death. Most of his recorded poetry was composed before his descent into madness.
It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later "Romeo and Juliet". This type of love is known as "virgin love" because the lovers never marry or consummate their passion. Other famous virgin love stories set in Arabia are the stories of "Qays and Lubna", "Kuthair and Azza", "Marwa and Al Majnoun Al Faransi", and "Antara and Abla". This literary motif is common throughout the world, notably in the Muslim literature of South Asia, such as Urdu ghazals.
History and influence.
Persian adaptation and Persian literature.
The story of Layla and Majnun was known in Persia as early as the 9th century. Two well known Persian poets, Rudaki and Baba Taher, both mention the lovers.
Although the story was known in Arabic literature in the 5th century, it was the Persian masterpiece of Nizami Ganjavi that popularized it dramatically in Persian literature. Nizami collected both secular and mystical sources about Majnun and portrayed a vivid picture of the famous lovers. Subsequently, many other Persian poets imitated him and wrote their own versions of the romance. Nizami drew influence from Udhrite love poetry, which is characterized by erotic abandon and attraction to the beloved, often by means of an unfulfillable longing. Other influences include older Persian epics, such as "Vāmiq u 'Adhrā", written in the 11th century, which covers a similar topic of a virgin and her passionate lover; the latter having to go through many trials to be with his love.
In his adaptation, the young lovers become acquainted at school and fell desperately in love. However, they could not see each other due to a family feud, and Layla's family arranged for her to marry another man. According to Dr. Rudolf Gelpke, "Many later poets have imitated Nizami's work, even if they could not equal and certainly not surpass it; Persians, Turks, Indians, to name only the most important ones. The Persian scholar Hekmat has listed no less than forty Persians and thirteen Turkish versions of "Layli and Majnun"." According to Vahid Dastgerdi, "If one would search all existing libraries, one would probably find more than 1000 versions of "Layli and Majnun"."
In his statistical survey of famous Persian romances, Ḥasan Ḏulfaqāri enumerates 59 'imitations' (naẓiras) of "Layla and Majnun" as the most popular romance in the Iranian world, followed by 51 versions of "Ḵosrow o Širin", 22 variants of Yusuf o Zuleikha and 16 versions of "Vāmiq u ʿAḏhrā".
Azerbaijani adaptation and Azerbaijani literature.
The story of Layla and Majnun passed into Azerbaijani literature. The Azerbaijani language adaptation of the story, "Dâstân-ı Leylî vü Mecnûn" (داستان ليلى و مجنون; "The Epic of Layla and Majnun") was written in the 16th century by Fuzûlî and Hagiri Tabrizi. Fuzûlî's version was borrowed by the renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, who used the material to create what became the Middle East's first opera. It premiered in Baku on 25 January 1908. The story had previously been brought to the stage in the late 19th century, when Ahmed Shawqi wrote a poetic play about the tragedy, now considered one of the best in modern Arab poetry. Majnun lines from the play are sometimes confused with his actual poems.
A scene of the poem is depicted on the reverse of the Azerbaijani 100 and 50 manat commemorative coins minted in 1996 for the 500th anniversary of Fuzûlî's life and activities.
Other influences.
The enduring popularity of the legend has influenced Middle Eastern literature, especially Sufi writers, in whose literature the name "Layla" refers to their concept of the Beloved. The original story is featured in Bahá'u'lláh's mystical writings, the "Seven Valleys". In the Arabic language, the word "Majnun" means "a crazy person." In addition to this creative use of language, the tale has also made at least one linguistic contribution, inspiring a Turkish colloquialism: to "feel like Mecnun" is to feel completely possessed, as might be expected of a person who is literally madly in love.
This epic poem was translated into English by Isaac D'Israeli in the early 19th century allowing a wider audience to appreciate it.
Layla has also been mentioned in many works by Aleister Crowley in many of his religious texts, including "The Book of Lies".
In India, it is believed that Layla and Majnun found refuge in a village in Rajasthan before they died. The graves of Layla and Majnun are believed to be located in the Bijnore village near Anupgarh in the Sriganganagar district. According to rural legend there, Layla and Majnun escaped to these parts and died there. Hundreds of newlyweds and lovers from India and Pakistan, despite there being no facilities for an overnight stay, attend the two-day fair in June.
Another variation on the tale tells of Layla and Majnun meeting in school. Majnun fell in love with Layla and was captivated by her. The school master would beat Majnun for paying attention to Layla instead of his school work. However, upon some sort of magic, whenever Majnun was beaten, Layla would bleed for his wounds. The families learnt of this strange magic and began to feud, preventing Layla and Majnun from seeing each other. They meet again later in their youth and Majnun wishes to marry Layla. Layla's brother, Tabrez, would not let her shame the family name by marrying Majnun. Tabrez and Majnun quarreled and, stricken with madness over Layla, Majnun murdered Tabrez. Word reached the village and Majnun was arrested. He was sentenced to be stoned to death by the villagers. Layla could not bear it and agreed to marry another man if Majnun would be kept safe from harm in exile. Her terms were accepted and Layla got married, but her heart still longed for Majnun. Hearing this, Layla's husband rode with his men into the desert to find Majnun. Upon finding him, Layla's husband challenged Majnun to the death. The instant her husband's sword pierced Majnun's heart, Layla collapsed in her home. Layla and Majnun were buried next to each other as her husband and their fathers prayed to their afterlife. Myth has it that Layla and Majnun met again in heaven, where they loved forever.