The starting hypothesis of this chapter is that the Victorian verses, known as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, constitute a paradigmatic case study for Persian literary translation studies. FitzGerald’s poem is representative of the Victorian art of translating classic and non-European literature and especially poetry; it has also become the scapegoat that enables the criticism and rejection of many older translations of Persian literature. Nevertheless, criticized as the “translation” may be, Persian studies are indebted to it for a great part of their romanticized image in the English-speaking world, which soon overflowed into other European cultures. Its astounding success lasted from a few years after its first version over more than a century. Much has been said about the English poet’s relation to his medieval Persian model or source, and about his picturesqueness; this chapter is an opportunity for reminding ourselves of the translation tradition prevalent at the time of its creation and for revisiting the scholarship around “Rubaiyat studies.” Departing from existing scholarly discussions of this über-famous poem, the chapter looks at the paratext of the first edition of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Elements such as the title, the presence and absence of the author’s and translator’s names, the introduction, and the foot- and endnotes contain an impressive amount of information, shedding some new light on the process and decision-making behind the production of FitzGerald’s “translation” of a collection of Persian verses.