Sevda`i Kıssa-ı Leyli Birle Mecnun

Abstract

The Leyla and Mejnun which is of Arabic originand which narrates the sufferings of Mejnun, is amost famous story in Islamic countries. It seemsthat this story has been approached to in arealistic way in Arabic literature but inothers, especially in Persian and Turkishliteratures it is in a rather romantic way. In allworks, the love of Mejnun has been appreciated asa sample of pure love of a human and his suffet~ingshave given great excitement to all lts readersand listeners.In the course of time, sufistic themes has beenadded to the story. In other words, the story hasbeen interpreted in view of ' the teaching Islamicmysticism and ltis reknown as an outstanding typeof a human's ascension from humanistic love todivine love.Today, to our knowledge, the story has beenwritten 29 times in Ottoman literature.But nowonly 18 of these texts are available, others aremissing. There is no doubt that the lovliest of themwas Fuzuli's.A few works has been done on Leyla and Mejnunstories. All of them being on Fuiul i 's vet'sion ofthe story, to prepare critical editions of all theLeyla and Mejnun's will be helpfull in examiningthe differences in the expressional characteristicsof various versions of the story and inunderstanding the poetical features of Ottomanliterature in the course of its development.