ABSTRACT
The Aghani’s structure and framework is formed by a collection of one hundred songs, selected more than a century before al-Isfahani’s time, during the reign of Harun al-Rashid. The earliest full version of Majnun Layla love story is found in the tenth-century multi-volume Arabic-language compendium titled Kitab al-Aghani or Book of Songs. On the matter of the romance’s literary history, one may wonder why and how periodicity based upon dynastic factors would be relevant to the examination of a literary romance such as Majnun Layla. The Aghani rendition of the romance of Majnun Layla consists of ninety-four pages of prose material interspersed with an abundant quantity of poetry. The chapter on Majnun Layla in the Kitab al-Aghani, starts with a preamble in which al-Isfahani analyzes the lack of historicity of Majnun’s character and makes disclaimers in order to protect his own authorial integrity.
