Note: Author's note: "In the twelfth century C.E., Shirvanshah Akhsetan, a Caucasian ruler, commissioned the elegant Perian poet Nizami to write a Persion romance based on Arabic folk legends, dating back to the seventh century C.E., of the mad poet Majnun and the beautiful Layla. My version is based on two prose translations of this romance: Peter Chelkowski's Mirror of the Invisible World and R. Gelpke's The Story of Layla and Majnun."