Jamīl al-ʿUdhri

…its invention is attributed to Jamīl (died 701), of the tribe ʿUdhrah, “whose members die when they love.” The names of some of these “martyrs of love,” together with the names of their beloveds, were preserved and eventually became proverbial expressions of the tremendous force of true love. Such was…

…the ghazal was introduced by Jamīl (died 701), a member of the ʿUdhrah tribe from Hejaz. Jamīl’s lyrics tell of hopeless, idealistic lovers pining for each other unto death. These enormously popular works were imitated not only in Arabic but also in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu poetry until the 18th…