Study Guide for Nizami: Layla and Majnun (1188)  Using this
Guide  List of other study guides  Source: The Story of Layla
and Majnun, by Nizami. Trans. R. Gelpke. Omega Publications, 256
Darrow Road, New Lebanon, NY 12125. Phone: 800-443-7107 or 518
794-8181. ISBN #0-930872-52-5.  Begin by reading the first two
pages of the "Postscript" which begins on p. 200, where it is
made clear that there are many retellings of this tragic love
story. Nizami's is perhaps the most famous (even immortalized in
two songs by Eric Clapton: "Layla" and "I Am Yours"). One theory
of how it evolved is that there were a number of poems in Arabic
in which a poet named "Qays" complained of frustrated love for
his Layla. By gleaning various details from these poems, a
legend was gradually built up which imagined their story.
Nizami, writing in Persian rather than Arabic, long after the
legend had reached its definitive form, rendered it into an
ornate romance (a long narrative of love or adventure). The
original is in verse, though o