THE LOVE STORY OF LAYLA AND MAJNUN AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR THE CREATION OF THE FIRST OPERA IN THE MUSLIM WORLD

Abstract

The story of the unlucky love of Layla and Majnun has stimulated the imagination of artists for almost fifteen hundred years, serving as an inspiration for a growing number of works of art. But it is not merely a simple story of young people who were in love but who were not meant to be together due to the girl’s parents’ objection, which caused the young man to lose himself in his obsessive and self-destructive feelings. The tale of the crazy poet Majnun and his beloved girl also has a deeper meaning to it as it constitutes a pattern for searching one’s own spiritual path resulting from the necessity to renounce simple human desires. The last decades have brought numerous multi-cultural projects based on the story of Layla and Majnun, which proves unflagging interest in this 7th century Bedouin tale; new operas about them have been written as well. This article presents the story of the unlucky poet as the source of inspiration for the creation of the first opera in the world of Islam. It briefly discusses the importance of Bedouin poetry from the first millennium AD, including the story of Layla and Majnun, in the context of the development of classical Arabic poetry, it also signals its impact on the European culture. Apart from that, it presents the composer and the circumstances in which the first operatic work ever created in the Muslim world – the work being part of the mugham trend – was written.