MerryK8896455 at 07:16, 29 April 2026

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{{short description|1817 poem by Thomas Moore}}
{{about|a poem by Thomas Moore}}
{{Italic title}}
{{use British English|date=January 2021}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}

{{Infobox book
| image =
Lalla Rookh - Upper cover and spine (c188b37).jpg
| caption = The 1861 edition
| author = [[Thomas Moore]]
| pub_date = 1817
}}

'''''Lalla Rookh''''' is a romantic work by Irish poet [[Thomas Moore]], first published in 1817. The title refers to the fictional heroine of the [[frame tale]], depicted as the daughter of the 17th-century [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] emperor [[Aurangzeb]]. It consists of four [[Narrative poetry|narrative poems]] with a connecting tale in prose. The work was a resounding success, and its popularity gave rise to many ships being named "Lalla Rookh" during the 19th century. It also played an instrumental role in making [[Kashmir]] (called ''Cashmere'' in the poem) a household name in the [[English-speaking world]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Arts and South Asia | via=Issuu|publisher=Harvard South Asia Institute|date=12 May 2017 |page=45|chapter=At the threshold of paradise: Kashmir in Mughal Persian poetry|first=Sunil|last=Sharma| url=https://issuu.com/harvardsai/docs/sai_arts_final | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> The poem remains one of the great works of [[Orientalism|orientalist]] poetry and has been regularly adapted into films, musicals, operas, and other media.

==Name and background==
[[File:Hofstaat zu Delhi am Geburtstag des Großmoguls01.jpg|thumb|Diorama of the Mughal imperial palace at Delhi (1701–1708), made by [[Johann Melchior Dinglinger]]<ref name="google4">{{cite book|title=The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture|author1=Schimmel, A.|author2=Waghmar, B. K.|date=2004|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=9781861891853|url=https://archive.org/details/empireofgreatmug00anne|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/empireofgreatmug00anne/page/17 17]|access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref>]]
The name Lalla Rookh or Lala-Rukh ({{langx|fa|لاله رخ}} ''laleh rox'' or ''rukh'') means "tulip-cheeked" and is an endearment frequently used in Persian poetry.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Balfour | first = Edward | title = The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia | publisher = Bernard Quaritch | year = 1885 | volume = II | location = London | page = 661 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3U0OAAAAQAAJe
}}</ref> Lalla Rookh has also been translated as "rosy-cheeked";<ref>{{cite web | last=Murphy | first=Janet | title=Lalla Rookh- Marking the Indian Arrival in Suriname | website=NewsGram | date=30 April 2016 | url=https://www.newsgram.com/lalla-rookh-marking-the-indian-arrival-in-suriname/ | access-date=28 January 2021}}</ref> however, the first word derives from the [[Persian language|Persian]] word for tulip, ''laleh'', and a different word, ''laal'', means rosy, or [[ruby]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Moor | first=Edward | title=Oriental Fragments. By the Author of the Hindu Pantheon | publisher=Smith | year=1834 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rx1nAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA128 | access-date=30 January 2021 | page=128}}</ref> Tulips were first cultivated in Persia, probably in the 10th century,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Christenhusz|first1=Maarten J.M.|first2=Rafaël |last2=Govaerts|first3=John C. |last3=David |first4=Tony |last4=Hall |first5=Katherine |last5=Borland |first6=Penelope S. |last6=Roberts |first7=Anne |last7=Tuomisto |first8=Sven |last8=Buerki |first9=Mark W. |last9=Chase |first10=Michael F. |last10=Fay|display-authors=2|author-link1=Maarten Christenhusz|author-link2=Rafael Govaerts|author-link9=Mark W Chase|author-link10=Michael F Fay |title=Tiptoe through the tulips – cultural history, molecular phylogenetics and classification of ''Tulipa'' (Liliaceae)|year=2013|issue=3 |journal=[[Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society]]|volume=172|pages=280–328 |doi=10.1111/boj.12061|doi-access=free }}</ref> and remain a powerful symbol in Iranian culture,<ref>{{cite web | title=Politics and Art of Iran's Revolutionary Tulips | website=The Iran Primer | date=23 April 2013 | url=https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2013/apr/23/politics-and-art-iran%E2%80%99s-revolutionary-tulips | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427074457/http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2013/apr/23/politics-and-art-iran%E2%80%99s-revolutionary-tulips | url-status=dead | archive-date=27 April 2013 | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> and the name Laleh is a popular girl's name.<ref>{{cite web | title=Beauty unbound: Flowers in Iranian culture | website=Tehran Times | date=15 January 2012 | url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/395819/Beauty-unbound-Flowers-in-Iranian-culture | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> ''Rukh'' also translates as "face".<ref>{{cite web | title=Word histories and Urdu | website=DAWN.COM | date=14 March 2011 | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/612909/word-histories-and-urdu | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref>

Moore is believed to have drawn inspiration from ''[[The Garden of Knowledge]]'' by [[Shaikh Inayat Allah Kamboh|Inayatullah Kamboh]] (1608–1671).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Irwin |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Irwin (writer) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDjAzgEACAAJ |title=The Arabian Nights: A Companion |date=2010 |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris|Tauris Parke Paperbacks]] |isbn=978-1-86064-983-7 |edition=2nd |series= |location=London |page=191}}</ref> He set his poem in a sumptuous [[oriental]] setting on the advice of [[Lord Byron]].<ref name=eb>{{cite web | title=Thomas Moore | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=24 May 2020 | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Moore | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref>
The work was completed in 1817 while Moore was living in a house in the countryside of [[Hornsey]], Middlesex, and the house was renamed, possibly by Moore himself, after the poem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/lalla-rookh-house|title = Lalla Rookh - house}}</ref> Lalla Rookh is a fictional daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb; he had no daughter of this name.<ref name=iqbal>{{cite web | last=Iqbal | first=Amjad | title=Tomb of a fabled princess | website=DAWN.COM | date=3 May 2015 | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1179690 | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref>

==Overview==
The plot is framed by a romantic narrative featuring the princess's journey and encounters. The aged King of [[Khanate of Bukhara|Bukhara]] abdicated in favour of his son, which caused an Indian ruler to arrange a marriage between his daughter Lalla Rookh and the new ruler. Lalla Rookh travels to meet her betrothed, but falls in love with Feramorz, a poet posing as a humble singer in her entourage. Feramorz charms the princess with his ability to compose poetry. The bulk of the work consists of four interpolated tales sung by the poet: "The Veiled Prophet of [[Greater Khorasan|Khorassan]]" (loosely based upon the story of [[Al-Muqanna]]), "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, expecting to do her duty in marrying a man she has never met. She awakens with rapture to find that the poet she loves is there. The king had disguised himself as a slave to test whether his bride-to-be loved him for who he truly was.<ref>{{Cite Nuttall|title=Lalla-Rookh}}</ref>

==Allegorical meaning==

Scholars have stated Moore, a friend of the executed Irish rebel [[Robert Emmet]], depicts in the poem "disguised versions of the French Revolution and the Irish Rebellion of 1798, [and] condemns the former but justifies the latter".<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ron/1900-v1-n1-ron1039/012459ar/|doi = 10.7202/012459ar|title = "The Standard of Revolt": Revolution and National Independence in Moore's Lalla Rookh|year = 2006|last1 = Vail|first1 = Jeffery W.|journal = Romanticism on the Net|issue = 40|url-access = subscription}}</ref>

==Adaptations==

''Lalla Rookh'' inspired several musical settings, including a [[cantata]] by [[Frederic Clay]] & [[W. G. Wills]] (1877) featuring the famous song "I'll Sing Thee Songs of Araby".<ref>Michael Kilgariff (1998) ''Sing Us One of the Old Songs: A Guide to Popular Song 1860–1920''</ref>

''The Fire-Worshippers'' is an 1892 "dramatic cantata" by [[Granville Bantock]] based on one of the tales,<ref>{{cite web | title=Granville Bantock's The Fire Worshippers |first= Josh |last=Liu | website=Thomas Moore in Europe (QUB Blog) |publisher= [[Queen's University Belfast]] | date=30 June 2017 | url=https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/erin/2017/06/30/granville-bantocks-the-fire-worshippers/ | access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> and Bantock also wrote a 6-part adaptation of the whole poem for piano solo in 1919.

It is also the basis of the [[operas]] ''Lalla-Rûkh'', festival pageant (1821) by [[Gaspare Spontini]], partly reworked into ''Nurmahal oder das Rosenfest von Caschmir'' (1822), ''[[Lalla-Roukh]]'' by [[Félicien David]] (1862), ''[[Feramors]]'' by [[Anton Rubinstein]] (1863), and ''[[The Veiled Prophet (opera)|The Veiled Prophet]]'' by [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] (1879). One of the interpolated tales, ''[[Paradise and the Peri]]'', was set as a choral-orchestral work by [[Robert Schumann]] (1843). Lines from the poem form the lyrics of the song "Bendemeer Stream".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Interlude |date=2015-05-24 |title=What work did Schumann consider to be his greatest? |url=https://interlude.hk/robert-schumann-paradise-peri-op-50/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |language=en-US}}</ref>

The poem was translated into German in 1846 as ''Laleh-Rukh. Eine romantische Dichtung aus dem Morgenlande'', by [[A. E. Wollheim da Fonseca|Anton Edmund Wollheim da Fonseca]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Laleh-Rukh. Eine romantische Dichtung aus dem Morgenlande...| website=Google Books| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MBYAAAAcAAJ&q=Laleh-Rukh.+Eine+romantische+Dichtung+aus+dem+Morgenlande | access-date=30 January 2021| last1=Moore| first1=Thomas| date=1846}}</ref> was possibly the most translated poem of its time.<ref name=eb/>

''[[Lala Rookh]]'', a 1958 Indian [[Hindi]]-language romantic-drama film by Akhtar Siraj, was based on Moore's poem.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Madhulika Liddle |author1-link=Madhulika Liddle |title=Lala Rookh (1958) |url=https://madhulikaliddle.com/2013/02/02/lala-rookh-1958/ |website=Dustedoff |language=en |date=2 February 2013}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
The poem, which earned the highest price ever thus far for a poem (£3,000), enhanced Moore's reputation considerably at the time.<ref name=eb/>

The popularity of the poem and its subsequent adaptations gave rise to many ships being named ''[[List of ships named Lalla Rookh|Lalla Rookh]]'' during the 19th century.

[[Alfred Joseph Woolmer]] painted "Lalla Rookh" in 1861, depicting Hinda, daughter of the [[Emir]] of Arabia, in a tower overlooking the [[Persian Gulf]], based on the story called "The Fire-Worshippers" in the poem. It is now housed in the [[Leicester Museum & Art Gallery]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Lalla Rookh(from the poem by Thomas Moore)| website=Art UK | url=https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/lalla-rookh-80915# | access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

It is also credited with having made [[Kashmir]] (spelt ''Cashmere'' in the poem) "a household term in [[Anglophone]] societies", conveying the idea that it was a kind of [[paradise]] (an old idea going back to [[Hindu]] and [[Buddhist]] texts in [[Sanskrit]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Arts and South Asia | via=Issuu|publisher=Harvard South Asia Institute|date=12 May 2017 |page=45|chapter=At the threshold of paradise: Kashmir in Mughal Persian poetry|first=Sunil|last=Sharma| url=https://issuu.com/harvardsai/docs/sai_arts_final | access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref>

The [[Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm]] (founded 1889), often known as "the Grotto", a [[Side Degrees|social group]] with membership restricted to [[Freemasonry|Master Masons]], and its female auxiliary, the Daughters of Mokanna (founded 1919), also take their names from Thomas Moore's poem.<ref>{{Citation | title = The Grotto | publisher = MasonicDictionary.com | year = 2007 | url = http://www.masonicdictionary.com/grotto.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070702112058/http://www.masonicdictionary.com/grotto.html | url-status = usurped | archive-date = 2 July 2007 | access-date = 15 Dec 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Lalla Rookh Caldron, Daughters of Mokanna |publisher=Lalla Rookh Grotto |url=http://lallarookhgrotto.com/id18.html |access-date=2009-12-15
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031071334/http://lallarookhgrotto.com/id18.html |archive-date=31 Oct 2009}}</ref>

The [[Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball|Veiled Prophet Organization]] of [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]], founded in 1878 by [[Charles E. Slayback|Charles]] and [[Alonzo W. Slayback|Alonzo Slayback]] created a mythology for a secret society and borrowed the name "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan".

A tomb in [[Hassanabdal]], Pakistan, dating from the [[Mughal Empire]], is known as the tomb of Princess Lalarukh. Some historians and others say that there is a woman called Lalarukh from the household of Emperor [[Humayun]] buried here after dying on a journey from Kashmir, while others claim that she was the daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. The tomb was first recorded as the Tomb of Lady Lalarukh in 1905, which historians suggest was derived from Moore's popular work and named by British officers in the time of [[British India]].<ref name=iqbal/>

In [[George Eliot]]'s 1871/1872 novel ''[[Middlemarch]]'', it is said of the character Rosamond Vincy, "Her favourite poem was 'Lalla Rookh'" (Chapter 16).

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Lalla Rookh}}
{{Commonscat}}
*{{cite web | title=Introducing Project ERIN: Thomas Moore in Europe| website=Thomas Moore in Europe (QUB Blog) |publisher= [[Queen's University Belfast]] | date=16 June 2017|url=https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/erin/ |quote=ERIN documents two of Thomas Moore’s song series – the Irish Melodies (1808-1834) and National Airs (1818-1827) – as well as music inspired by his ‘oriental romance’ Lalla Rookh (1817).}}
* {{cite web | title=Lalla Rookh : The Oriental Road Trip'pin Romance | website=The Heritage Lab | date=24 September 2017 | url=https://www.theheritagelab.in/lalla-rookh-oriental/}} – Summarises the four narratives.
* Text of "[http://www.bartleby.com/library/poem/3665.html Paradise and the Peri]"
* [https://franpritchett.com/00generallinks/lallarookh/ ''Lalla Rookh''] prepared for the web by Fran Pritchett.
* {{cite book |title=Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance |author=Thomas Moore |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell & Company |year=1817|url=https://archive.org/stream/lallarookhorien00mooriala/lallarookhorien00mooriala_djvu.txt }}
* [[gutenberg:8187|The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas More]], including ''Lalla Rookh''

{{Thomas Moore|state=expanded}}
{{Irish poetry}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Poetry by Thomas Moore]]
[[Category:Works set in the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Irish poems]]
[[Category:Narrative poems]]
[[Category:1817 poems]]
[[Category:Poems adapted into films]]

Lalla Rookh - Revision history

MerryK8896455 at 07:16, 29 April 2026