Arif

Arif or Aref may refer to:

Layla and Majnun

Layla and Majnun (English: Possessed by madness for Layla; Persian: لیلی و مجنون عامری‎‎ (Leyli o Majnun); Arabic: مجنون لیلی‎ (Majnun Layla)) is a love story that originated as poem in ancient Persia, later was adopted by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi who also wrote "Khosrow and Shirin". It is the third of his five long narrative poems, Khamsa (the Quintet).

Qays and Layla fall in love with each other when they are young, but when they grow up Layla’s father doesn't allow them to be together. Qays becomes obsessed with her, and the community gives him the epithet Majnun (مجنون, lit. "possessed"), the same epithet given to the semi-historical character Qays ibn al-Mulawwah of the Banu 'Amir tribe. Long before Nizami, the legend circulated in anecdotal forms in Arabic akhbar. The early anecdotes and oral reports about Majnun are documented in Kitab al-Aghani and Ibn Qutaybah's al-Shi'r wal-Shu'ara'. The anecdotes are mostly very short, only loosely connected, and show little or no plot development.