The Fame of Omar Khayyam. Abd al-Haqq Fádil.
The Muslim World, 50 (1960) 4, pp. 259-268
Omar Khayyam’s popularity has two phases. In his life he was tremendously famous for his copious learning; after his death he became celebrated for his brilliant Rubáiyyát. In both he was unique and matchless. But he did not enjoy his fame completely either in life or in death. It is time now for us to grant him his due in full as a man of learning and as a poet.
Theme of Wine-drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in Early Persian Poetry. E. Yarshater.
Studia Islamica 13, (1960), p. 43-53.
Glorification of wine and drinking scenes is, in fact, one of the major themes of early Persian poetry. Descriptions are direct, vivid, and refreshingly varied. Generally, the poet speaks with knowledge and authority on the subject, and his delightfully appealing delineation reveals that sensuous quality so characteristic of Persian art. Many valuable details bearing on the drinking institution at courts, not recorded elsewhere, can be gathered from the poetry of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
The Centenary of the Rubaiyat. John Quinlan.
Contemporary Review (1959) 195, pp. 180-181.
Preparing for the Centenary of Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat. Carl J. Weber.
Colby Library Quarterly, 5 (1959) 1, p. 5-14.
When The Variorum and Definitive Edition of the Poetical and Prose Writings of Edward FitzGerald was published with an Introduction by Edmund Gosse, there seemed little doubt about the date of publication of the Rubaiyat. With an assurance that seemed based on certitude, Gosse referred to “the now so-precious pamphlet which Quaritch issued stillborn on the 15th of February, 1859.”
One hundred years of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. John D. Yohannan.
Epiterea (1959) p. 259-274.
Brief account of the FitzGerald translation, later translations, the public attitude towards Omar Khayyam, interspersed with some interesting observations and facts.
Omar Khayyam, Mathematician. D.J. Struik.
The Mathematics Teacher, 51 (1958) 4, pp. 280-285.
Not all the admirers of the Rubáiyát are aware that their author, Abu-l-Fath Omar ibn Ibrahim Khayyam, of Nishapur in present North Iran, was also a distinguished philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. As a philosopher, he was a follower of Aristotle, whom he interpreted with a keen rationalism; as an astronomer, he composed a calendar more accurate than that proposed centuries later by Pope Gregory XIII and now adopted by most people. Omar’s mathematics has been brought closer to the English-reading world by the Kasir translation of his Algebra, published in 1931, although a French translation by Woepcke has existed since 1851
Notes on Omar Khayyám (1050-1123) and recent discoveries. R.C. Archibald.
Pi Mu Epsilon Journal 1 (1953) nr. 9, p. 351-358.
Up to a decade ago, Omar was regarded by scholars as a comparatively minor Persian poet. But within the past three years this view has been shown to be entirely wrong. Two new manuscripts of Omar’s poetry have been found, and one of them dated only 85 years after Omar’s death. From these Professor Arberry, of the University of Cambridge, has discovered that Omar was regarded by Persians as one of their greatest poets, and that the existing quotations point to an original corpus of at least 750 quatrains.