NIZAMI: LAYLA AND MAJNUN
English Version by Paul Smith
It is impossible to underestimate the effect of Nizami’s ‘Layla and Majnun’ on the world over the past 800 years. Many poets throughout this period have copied or been influenced by his story of the young lovers. Many Master-Poets besides Ibn Arabi, Attar, Rumi, Sadi, Hafiz and Jami have quoted from him or like him have used the story of the desperate lovers to illustrate how human love can be transformed into divine love through separation and longing. It is said that no one has painted a more perfect picture of women in Persian Literature than Nizami.
Paintings by the thousands, musical pieces and hundreds of songs (even ‘modern’ ones by singer-songwriters such as Eric Clapton) have been inspired by Nizami’s epic poem, also many plays, operas, ballets and films. Today the influence of his book seems more alive than ever and is growing.
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Paperback: late 2007 (approximately 240 pages).
e-Book/PDF available NOW - AUD$12.00
It is still one of the most popular epics of the Middle East and Central Asia ... among Azerbaijanis, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Afghans, Tajiks, Kurds, Indians and Pakistanis. Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is said to have been written under the influence of a Latin translation of LAYLA AND MAJNUN.