Archives

The Works of Omar Khayyam in the History of Mathematics

The Works of Omar Khayyam in the History of Mathematics. Thomas Bisom
In: The Mathematics Enthusiast, 18 (2021), nrs. 1 & 2, p. 290-305

The exact time when the mathematician Omar Khayyam lived is not well-defined, but it is generally agreed upon that he lived from the end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 12th century C.E. in Nishapur, which is in modern-day Iran and Afghanistan (Struik, 1958). Other than mathematics, Omar Khayyam also made considerable contributions to other fields, such as astronomy, philosophy, and poetry (Struik, 1958). He is probably most famous for his poem titled Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which was translated by Edward Fitzgerald (Struik, 1958). Although famous for his poetry, he was professionally inclined to astronomy and mathematics. In mathematics, he is well-known for being the first individual to find positive root solutions to multiple cubic equations, and he is also known for furthering understanding of the parallel axiom (Eves, 1958, p. 285; Struik, 1958). In this report, details of Omar Khayyam’s life will be mentioned, but the focus will be on his contributions to mathematics and his role in the history of mathematics.
Open Access

A Coleção Rubáiyát

A Coleção Rubáiyát. Denise Bottmann
In: Cadernos de Tradução, vol. 43 (2023) 1

This article draws a sketch of the so-called Coleção Rubáiyát, published by Livraria José Olympio Editora since 1943 through 1961, presenting its previous roots in another series of books, and a complete list of its published works, as well as a brief iconography with some cover images.

Quatrains of Many Receptions

Quatrains of Many Receptions: A Survey of Perceptions of ‘Omar Khayyām in Ottoman and Turkish Translations. Efe Murat Balıkçıoğlu
In: Iranian Studies, Vol. 57 (2024), 2, pp. 221–239

This article explores the wide range of responses to Persian polymath and poet ‘Omar Khayyām (d. ca. 526/1132) in Ottoman and Turkish literary sources. There is an extensive bibliography of translations and secondary literature.

 

The sweetest of Fitzgerald’s quatrains

The sweetest of Fitzgerald’s quatrains. Henry E. Legler
In: Book Lover, November-December 1902, p. 464-465

Compares FitzGerald’s famous quatrain no. 12 (1879) “A Book of Verses …” with translations by other authors (Le Galienne, Curtis, Pickering, Kerney, Whinfield, Garner, Keene, Anson, Costello, Cowell and Powell.

Shaaban Robert’s Swahili Rubáiyát and Its Reckonings

Shaaban Robert’s Swahili Rubáiyát and Its Reckonings. Annmarie Drury
In: Modern Philology 121 (2023) 2, p. 169-191

Abstract

Shaaban Robert’s Swahili poem Omar Khayyam kwa Kiswahili (Omar Khayyam in Swahili) (1952), translated from Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam (1859), provides a study in the reach and transformation of British literature of the nineteenth century and in the significance of translation within a colonial sphere. Robert (1909–1962), a major Swahili author, was employed by the colonial service for all his working life, and in terms of his receipt of FitzGerald’s poem and the very language he used, the Standard Swahili created by the British colonial state, his translation was imbricated in a colonial context. He exercised significant creative agency as translator, plumbing FitzGerald’s poem for underlying elements of Khayyám’s Persian and translating FitzGerald’s rendering of Khayyám to highlight affiliations between Khayyám and Swahili poetic tradition. At the inception of Robert’s translating of FitzGerald lay a troubling experience of dislocation that resonates with FitzGerald’s creation of his translation and the reception of that poem and that helps us understand the affective associations belonging to Omar Khayyam kwa Kiswahili. Thus, Robert nurtured the cosmopolitan connections of Swahili poetry while creating for Standard Swahili—a variety of Swahili with little poetry to call its own—a poem bearing a sense of poetic tradition.