Nizami Ganjavi’s The Story of Layla and Majnun is a classic love story based on one of the best-known legends of the Middle East. Often compared to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Layla and Majnun are ‘two ill-fated lovers separated by feuding families’. Majnun, whose real name is Qays, became known as majnun (Arabic for mad) as a result of his extreme love for Layla. His mad passion has been admired by mystics and poets as ‘an example of perfect love’, and is the reason why ‘the two lovers of this classic tale are remembered to this day in the poems and songs from the Caucasus to the interior of Africa, and from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean’ (Sinha).
When Do You Feel Most Creative? Why Ideas Bloom at Bedtime
More times than I can count, I’ve slid under the bedsheets, turned off the light, and shut my eyes…only to have a great idea…