The Story of Layla and Majnun

THE STORY OF LAYLA AND MAJNUN

ABOUT

The story of Layla (or Laila) and Majnun has been told in the East for thousands of years

and has always exerted a great fascination,

for it is not only a love-story, but a lesson in love.

Not love as it is generally understood by man, but the love that rises above the earth and heavens.

THE STORY

“Whose heart would not have filled with longing at the sight of this girl?

But young Qays felt even more.

He was drowned in the ocean of love before he knew that there was such a thing.

He had already given his heart to Layla before he understood what he was giving away

…And Layla? She fared no better.

A fire had been lit in both-and each reflected the other.

What could they have done against it?

Nizami Ganjavi, The Story of Layla and Majnun

Qays becomes crazy about her and that's why he's later given the name Majnun (means possessed).

Majnun's parents called physicians, soothsayers, healers, magicians, and poured money at their feet, asking them for some remedy to take away from the heart of Majnun the thought of Layla.

But how could it be done?

No one has ever healed a patient of love.

Even Luqman the great physician of the ancients, had no cure for the lovesick.

One day Layla's husband died and Layla went to desert to find Majnun.

She found Majnun but there was something wrong.

She said, 'I am here as I promised, O Majnun.'

He answered, 'I am Layla.'

She said, 'Majnun, come to your senses. I am Layla. Look at me.'

Majnun said, 'Are you Layla? Then I am not,' and he was dead.

Layla, seeing this perfection in love, could not live a single moment more.

She at the same time cried the name of Majnun and fell down and died.

“I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla

And I kiss this wall and that wall

It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart

But of the One who dwells in those houses”

samed sahin

Thanks for your patience.

Adaptations of Legend

Layla and Majnun — poem of Alisher Navoi.

Layla and Majnun — poem of Jami.

Layla and Majnun — poem of Nizami Ganjavi.

Layla and Majnun — poem of Fuzûlî.

Layla and Majnun — poem of Hagiri Tabrizi.

Layla and Majnun — drama in verse of Mirza Hadi Ruswa.

Layla and Majnun — novel of Necati.

Layla and Majnun — the first Muslim and the Azerbaijani opera of Uzeyir Hajibeyov.

Layla and Majnun — symphonic poem of Gara Garayev (1947)

Layla and Majnun — ballet, staged by K. Goleizovsky (1964) © on music SA Balasanyan.

The Song of Majnun — opera of Bright Sheng (1992)

Laila Majnu — Indian Hindi silent film in 1922.

Laila Majnu — Indian Hindi silent film in 1927.

Laila Majnu — Indian Hindi film in 1931.

Laila Majnu — Indian Hindi film in 1931.

Layla and Majnun — Iranian film in 1936.

Laila Majnu — Indian Telugu film in 1949.

Layla and Majnun — Tajik Soviet film-ballet of 1960.

Layla and Majnun — Soviet Azerbaijani film of 1961.

Laila Majnu — Indian Malayalam film in 1962.

Laila Majnu — Indian Hindi film in 1976.

Leyla ile Mecnun — Music album of Orhan Gencebay in 1981.

Leyla ile Mecnun — Turkish drama film in 1982.

Love and God — Indian Hindi film in 1986

Layla and Majnun — Azerbaijani film-opera of 1996.

Aaja Nachle— a 2007 Indian film has a 15 minute musical play on life of Layla and Majnun.

Leyla ile Mecnun — is a Turkish television comedy series in 2011.

A Quote

Love

They saw each other and the love began. It was a different kind of love and Qays couldn't hide his passion. He started to write poems and read them everywhere.

and Seperation...

Soon after this love became talked by everybody.

Everyone whispered each other and pointed them out. And gossips reached Layla's parents.

Layla's parents removed her at once, and kept a careful watch over her.

The Final: Love... Still... Forever...

Layla and Qays lived in somewhere else in Middle East. When they was children they went to same school called ''Maktap'' .

The Beginning

Marriage

When he asked for her hand in marriage,

her father refused as it would be a scandal for Layla to marry someone considered mentally unbalanced.

Soon after, Layla was married to another man.

Another Final

Layla...Layla...

One day Layla's husband died and Layla went to desert to find Majnun.

However Majnun didn't recognize her. He said,

'Layla is inside of my heart, who are you?'

She understood Majnun's existing level then she came back her house. After a while she died. Majnun heard the death of Layla. Went and lay down her grave, cried out to God for his death.

His prayer were accepted and he embraced his beloved.

Years passed Majnun still lives in the desert with wild animals.

All of his connections between world interrupted.

Only his soul came down to him and he started to live in a different dimension.

He burned day by day with his love and he became Layla.

When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe 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.

A Quote

Friends came, relations came, well-wishers came, wise counselors came,

and all tried their best to efface from his mind the thought of Laila, but all was in vain.

Someone said to him,

'O Majnun, why do you sorrow at the separation from Layla? She is not beautiful.

I can show you a thousand fairer and more charming maidens, and can let you choose your mate from among them.'

Majnun answered,

'O, to see the beauty of Layla the eyes of Majnun are needed.'

When his father is trying to convince Majnun.

Kaba

Majnun

When no remedy had been left untried, the parents of Majnun resolved to seek the refuge of the Kaba as their last resort. They took Majnun on the pilgrimage to Kabatullah.

When they drew near to the Kaba a great crowd gathered to see them.

The parents, each in turn, went and prayed to God, saying, 'O Lord, Thou art most merciful and compassionate,

grant thy favor to our only son, that the heart of Majnun may be released from the pain of the love of Layla.'

Everybody there listened to this intently, and wonderingly awaited what Majnun had to say.

Then Majnun was asked by his parents, 'Child, go and pray that the love of Layla may be taken away from your heart.'

Majnun replied, 'Shall I meet my Laila if I pray?' They, with the greatest disappointment, said,

'Pray, child, whatever you like to pray.'

He went there and said, 'I want my Laila,' and everyone present said, 'Amen.'

'The world echoes to the lover's call.'

A Quote

A bearer had come and filled their cups to the brim.

They drank what he poured out for them.

They were children and did not realize

what they were drinking; no wonder they became drunk.

He who is drunk for the first time, becomes deeply drunk indeed.

And heavily falls he who has never had a fall before.

Nizami Ganjavi, The Story of Layla and Majnun

Later adopted and popularized by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi.

It is the third of his five long narrative poems, Khamsa (the Quintet).

In fact Majnun's name is Qays but after he fell in love people call him Majnun that means

''possessed by madness for Layla, madman.''

The most popular version of the story is the Fuzuli's has written in 1535 for a special request of Suleiman The Magnificent.

“Love is my fire and essence.

The bundles which is my self is gone.

Love has entered my house.

You do not see me.

You see ‘the beloved’.

How then can love be torn from my heart?”