2017-06-05 Mon

Most love stories have had tragic ends but two of the most famous among these are Romeo and Juliet and Layla and Majnun. Romeo and Juliet has been written by William Shakespeare and Layla Majnun was written by Nizami Ganjavi. However, both these stories have been inspired by real incidents.

Romeo (Montague family) and Juliet (Capulet family) belonged to two feuding families. One day Romeo along and his cousin Benvolio secretly visited a ball held at Lord Capulet’s house. He immediately fell in love with Juliet and vice a versa. They secretly got married the next day and soon consummated their marriage.

Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin found out that Romeo had crashed the ball party he challenged him to a duel. Romeo refused considering him as a family now; his friend Mercutio fought on his behalf and was fatally wounded. Angered, Romeo killed Tybalt.

Soon Juliet’s parents were giving her hand in marriage and in despair, Juliet drank a potion that would make her look dead for 48 hours. When the news reached Romeo, he consumed poison and died at her feet. Finding him dead she kissed him and died because of the remaining poison on his lips.

As soon as Qays ibn al-Mulawwah (Majnun) saw Layla Al-Aamiriya he fell deeply in love with her. He would write love poems about her and read them out to anyone who would hear it; he was thus called Majnun (madman). Layla’s parents refused Majnun’s proposal of marriage as they considered him mentally unstable.

She was then married off to another man while Majnun wandered off in the jungle. Her husband died soon and she decided to go to Majnun. However, custom demanded that she mourn his death for 2 years; the thought of 2 more years without Majnun broke her and she died. Majnun came back and died on her grave with the last poem

“I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla
And kiss this wall and that wall.
It’s not love of the houses that has taken my heart
but of the One who dwells in those houses.”

Sadly Layla and Majnun have no stamp of their own but many countries have issued stamps for Romeo and Juliet. The adjacent commemorative stamp was issued by Salpost (Sierra Leone) in 1989 worth 15 Livre Egyptienne.