Lalla Rookh is an Oriental romance

Romance (genre)

As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...

 by Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...

, published in 1817. The title is taken from the name of the heroine of the frame tale, the daughter of the Mughal

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 emperor Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb

Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...

. The work consists of four narrative poems

Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...

 with a connecting tale in prose.

Engaged to the young king of Bactria

Bactria

Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...

, Lalla Rookh goes forth to meet him, but falls in love with Feramorz, a poet from her entourage. The bulk of the work consists of four interpolated tales sung by the poet: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan (loosely based upon the story of Al-Muqanna

Al-Muqanna

Al-Muqanna‘ was a Persian man who claimed to be a prophet and is viewed as a heretic by mainstream Muslims.- Biography : Al-Muqanna‘ was an ethnic Persian from Merv named Hashim ibn Hakim, originally a clothes pleater. He became a commander for Abū Muslim of Khorasan...

), Paradise and the Peri, The Fire-Worshippers, and The Light of the Harem. When Lalla Rookh enters the palace of her bridegroom she swoons away, but revives at the sound of a familiar voice. She awakes with rapture to find that the poet she loves is none other than the prince to whom she is engaged.

The name Lalla Rookh, or Lala-Rukh , means "tulip cheeked" and is an endearment frequently used in Persian poetry.

Lalla Rookh was the basis of number of musical settings, including the song I'll Sing Thee Songs of Araby by Frederic Clay

Frederic Clay

Frederic Emes Clay was an English composer known principally for his music written for the stage. Clay, a great friend of Arthur Sullivan's, wrote four comic operas with W. S...

 & W. G. Wills

William Gorman Wills

William Gorman Wills , was an Irish dramatist and painter.-Biography:The son of James Wills , author of Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, William was born in Dublin and educated at Waterford Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin.After publishing his novel Old Times in an Irish...

 (1877).
It is also the basis of the operas Lalla-Rûkh, festival pageant (1821) by Gaspare Spontini

Gaspare Spontini

Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini was an Italian opera composer and conductor, extremely celebrated in his time, though largely forgotten after his death.-Biography:...

, partly reworked into Nurmahal oder das Rosenfest von Caschmir (1822), Feramors

Feramors

Feramors is an opera in two acts by Anton Rubinstein to a libretto by Julius Rodenberg. The story is based on Lalla Rookh by the Irish poet Thomas Moore. The opera was composed in 1862.-Performance history:...

by Anton Rubinstein

Anton Rubinstein

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...

 (1862), and "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan" by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1879), and an opéra-comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 by Félicien David (1862). One of the interpolated tales, Paradise and the Peri

Paradise and the Peri

Paradise and the Peri, in German Das Paradies und die Peri, is a cantata for soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Robert Schumann. Completed in 1843, the work was published as Schumann's Op. 50....

, was set as a choral-orchestral work by Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

(1843).

External links

• Lalla Rookh prepared for the web by Fran Pritchett
• The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore, including Lalla Rookh