Qays ibn Al-Mullawah (or “Majnoon”) was a seventh century poet from the Najd region of Saudi Arabia, most famous for his verses mourning his unrequited childhood love, Laila al-Aamiriya, who he was not allowed to marry. He is thought to have inaugurated the ghazal genre of love poetry, which spread across the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, Southeast Asia, and Europe in the centuries that followed.
Bio by Aya Labanieh