The story of Layla and Majnun
By: Nizami ; translated from the Persian and edited by Rudolf Gelpke ; English version in collaboration with E. Mattin and G. Hill ; final chapter translated from the Persian by Zia Inayat Khan and Omid Safi.
Contributors: Gelpke, Rudolf.
Publisher: Omega Publications
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New Lebanon, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 177
Other titles: Layla and Majnun.
Work titles: Laylī va Majnūn.
Description: The story of Layla and Majnun is the classic Islamic story of doomed love. The young Bedouin poet Qays fell in love with Layla, a woman of his own tribe, and wrote her many celebrated love poems. When his father forbade the marriage, Qays went mad and began to wander the desert (Majnun is Arabic for 'madman'). Five centuries later, the Persian author Nezami wrote what is generally regarded as the finest version of their story, presented here in a new English translation.