Ruqayya Yasmine Khan is an associate professor and the M. Malas Chair of Islamic Studies in Claremont Graduate University’s Religion Department. Khan’s research interests include Arabic literature (early and modern), Qur’anic studies, gender/women’s studies and Islam and the digital age. Her more recent scholarly interests include late antiquity and Islam, origins of Islam and cultures of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad. Khan is the author of the book Self and Secrecy in Early Islam (2008), which maps the relationships between the concepts of secrecy and identity in early Islamic cultures. She is also the editor of Muhammad in the Digital Age (2015).

• Introduction 1. Song Culture, Kitāb al-Aghānī (Book of Songs) and the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 2. On the term ‘Uḍhrī and its Symbolic Universe for Understanding Majnūn Laylā 3. The Night in the Ghayl—Love, Meaning, and Language 4. Umayyad and ‘Abbāsid Constructs of Masculinities in the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 5. A Lost ‘Bedouin Arcadia’—The Tree Man and the Umayyad Tax Man 6. Majnūn as the Knight-Errant: Language and the Significance of Errancy (Huyām) 7. ‘Abbāsid Culturally Primitivist Readings of Laylā as Object and Subject 8. ‘Abbāsid Readings of the ‘Uḍhrī Romances: Female Unchastity & the Love Triangle Conclusion Glossary Bibliography

Ruqayya Yasmine Khan is an associate professor and the M. Malas Chair of Islamic Studies in Claremont Graduate University’s Religion Department. Khan’s research interests include Arabic literature (early and modern), Qur’anic studies, gender/women’s studies and Islam and the digital age. Her more recent scholarly interests include late antiquity and Islam, origins of Islam and cultures of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad. Khan is the author of the book Self and Secrecy in Early Islam (2008), which maps the relationships between the concepts of secrecy and identity in early Islamic cultures. She is also the editor of Muhammad in the Digital Age (2015).

• Introduction 1. Song Culture, Kitāb al-Aghānī (Book of Songs) and the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 2. On the term ‘Uḍhrī and its Symbolic Universe for Understanding Majnūn Laylā 3. The Night in the Ghayl—Love, Meaning, and Language 4. Umayyad and ‘Abbāsid Constructs of Masculinities in the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 5. A Lost ‘Bedouin Arcadia’—The Tree Man and the Umayyad Tax Man 6. Majnūn as the Knight-Errant: Language and the Significance of Errancy (Huyām) 7. ‘Abbāsid Culturally Primitivist Readings of Laylā as Object and Subject 8. ‘Abbāsid Readings of the ‘Uḍhrī Romances: Female Unchastity & the Love Triangle Conclusion Glossary Bibliography

Ruqayya Yasmine Khan is an associate professor and the M. Malas Chair of Islamic Studies in Claremont Graduate University’s Religion Department. Khan’s research interests include Arabic literature (early and modern), Qur’anic studies, gender/women’s studies and Islam and the digital age. Her more recent scholarly interests include late antiquity and Islam, origins of Islam and cultures of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad. Khan is the author of the book Self and Secrecy in Early Islam (2008), which maps the relationships between the concepts of secrecy and identity in early Islamic cultures. She is also the editor of Muhammad in the Digital Age (2015).

• Introduction 1. Song Culture, Kitāb al-Aghānī (Book of Songs) and the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 2. On the term ‘Uḍhrī and its Symbolic Universe for Understanding Majnūn Laylā 3. The Night in the Ghayl—Love, Meaning, and Language 4. Umayyad and ‘Abbāsid Constructs of Masculinities in the Love Story of Majnūn Laylā 5. A Lost ‘Bedouin Arcadia’—The Tree Man and the Umayyad Tax Man 6. Majnūn as the Knight-Errant: Language and the Significance of Errancy (Huyām) 7. ‘Abbāsid Culturally Primitivist Readings of Laylā as Object and Subject 8. ‘Abbāsid Readings of the ‘Uḍhrī Romances: Female Unchastity & the Love Triangle Conclusion Glossary Bibliography