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Rijk met het onvolmaakte

Rijk met het onvolmaakte. Frans Dijkstra
In: Trouw, 12-7-2010

Portret van Gerard Burger (1948-2010). Hij ontworstelde zich aan een benauwd katholiek milieu en omarmde de onzekerheid van het bestaan. Een boekenwurm in actie.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Muslim secularism

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Muslim secularism. Juan Cole
Studies in People’s History 3 (2016) 2, pp. 138-150.

The fact that quatrains known as Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam were not really composed by the twelfth century astronomer of that name, but composed by various hands and made into collections later, is widely accepted. This paper examines under what political and social atmosphere in later times, the collections began to be compiled, and what elements of scepticism, irreligion, mysticism and even rationalism entered into them. It is argued that the collections retained their popularity and freely circulated wherever Persian was cultivated down to modern times.

FitzGerald’s Anglo-Persian Rubáiyát

FitzGerald’s Anglo-Persian Rubáiyát. R. Taher-Kermani.
Translation and Literature, 23 (2014), nr. 3 (324-335)

This article examines Edward FitzGerald’s translation practice and the poetics of his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859) in order to to enrich and supplement previous critiques. FitzGerald succeeded in ‘Persianising’ his re-writing of the rubáiyát by importing matter of peculiar Persian significance. In order to identify it, his translation of Khayyám needs to be read with, so to speak, a Persian eye; it has to be scrutinized as a native critic would read and analyse the poetry of, for example, Hāfiz. This is the fundamental approach of this essay.

Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat – an Antidote for Islamic Fundamentalism

Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat – an Antidote for Islamic Fundamentalism. N. Berdichevsky.
New English Review, (2007) November.

Omar Khayyam (1044-1123) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and mystic. His reputation was for a time highly regarded in Iran under the regime of the last Shah but by and large he has been held either in ignominy, contempt, total disregard or intentional oblivion by almost the entire Muslim world, and especially the Arab countries and his native Iran, ruled today by the clique of fanatical mullahs who represent the very targets of bigotry, asceticism and ignorance his verses derided in The Rubaiyat.

Reading the Rubá’iyyát as “resistance literature”

Reading the Rubá’iyyát as “resistance literature”. Mehdi Aminrazavi.
In: The great ‘Umar Khayyám. Leiden, Leiden University Press, 2012. pp. 39-53.

Aminrazavi argues that many of the Rubáiyát were written as a reaction to the rise of Islamic orthodoxy and the demise of the intellectual freedom which was so prevalent in the first four centuries of the Islamic history. He argues that once Khayyám’s Rubáiyát are placed within the historical context of his time, they will no longer appear to be the pessimistic existential bemoaning of a poet-philosopher like Schopenhauer. Rather, one can see the Rubáiyát as an intellectual critique of the rise of orthodox and legalistic Islam as represented by the faith-based theology of the Ash‘arite.

‘Omar Khayyám et les activités mathématiques en Pays d’Islam aux XIe-XIIe siècles

‘Omar Khayyám et les activités mathématiques en Pays d’Islam aux XIe-XIIe siècles. A. Djebbar.
Farhang 12 (2000) nr. 29-32, p. 1-31.

Summary

Si l’on exclut, à chaque époque, quelques rares spécialistes bien au fait des contributions scientifiques de ‘Omar Khayyam (ou al-Khayyami), la célébrité de ce dernier repose, depuis le Xlie siècle, sur une partie des activités qu’il a réellement exercées durant sa longue vie, comme la Poésie, la Philosophie et, dans moindre mesure, l’Astronomie. Elle repose aussi sur des activités, des initiatives et des comportements qui lui ont été attribués mais qui, jusqu’á aujourd’hui, n’ont pu être confirmés par des témoignages concordants. Dans le même temps, la plupart des personnes qui ont entendu parler de lui ignore presque tout sur le contenu de ses activités scientifiques et sur ses contributions dans les différents domaines dans lesquels il a eu à exercer son talent, c’est á dire en Calcul, en Algèbre, en Géométrie, en Astronomie et en Statique, comme nous Ie rélèlent les écrits qui nous sont parvenus ou les témoignages sur des écrits perdus.

The Fame of Omar Khayyam

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.

Umar Khayyam and his age

Umar Khayyam and his age. Otto Rothfeld. Bombay, Taraporevala, 1922.

Summary:

Study of Omar Khayyám’s life and works, in correlation to the historical and spiritual development of Islam. With quatrains from Whinfield’s translation.

Contents:
Umar’s Life and Period
The Significance of Umar’s Ruba’iat

Umar Khayyam

Umar Khayyam. Mehdi Aminrazavi; Glen van Brummelen
In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2017

Summary

The authors argue that Umar Khayyam was a philosopher-sage (ḥakīm) and a spiritual-pragmatist whose Rubā‘iyyāt should be seen as a philosophical commentary on the human condition. The salient features of Umar Khayyam’s pioneering work in various branches of mathematics were also discussed. Khayyam’s mathematical genius not only produced the most accurate calendar to date, but the issues he treated remained pertinent up until the modern period. For Khayyam, there are two discourses, each of which pertains to one dimension of human existence: philosophical and poetic. Philosophically, Khayyam was the last Peripatetic in the Persian speaking world before philosophical thinking eclipsed the Eastern part of the Islamic world for several centuries. Khayyam defended rationalism against the rise of orthodoxy and made an attempt to revive the spirit of rationalism which was so prevalent in the first four centuries in Islam. Poetically, Khayyam represents a voice of protest against what he regards to be a fundamentally unjust world. Many people found in him a voice they needed to hear, and centuries after he had died his works became a venue for those who were experiencing the same trials and tribulations as Khayyam had.