Lalla Rookh

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 emperor Aurangzeb. It consists of four 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. The poem remains one of the great works of orientalist poetry and has been regularly adapted into films, musicals, operas, and other media.

The name Lalla Rookh or Lala-Rukh (Persian: لاله رخ laleh rox or rukh) means "tulip-cheeked" and is an endearment frequently used in Persian poetry. Lalla Rookh has also been translated as "rosy-cheeked"; however, the first word derives from the Persian word for tulip, laleh, and a different word, laal, means rosy, or ruby. Tulips were first cultivated in Persia, probably in the 10th century, and remain a powerful symbol in Iranian culture, and the name Laleh is a popular girl's name. Rukh also translates as "face".

Moore is believed to have drawn inspiration from The Garden of Knowledge by Inayatullah Kamboh (1608–1671). He set his poem in a sumptuous oriental setting on the advice of Lord Byron.

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. Lalla Rookh is a fictional daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb; he had no daughter of this name.