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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.

William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and ‘The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’

William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and ‘The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’. Michaela Braesel.
Apollo (2004), (February)

Braesel discusses the manuscript designs by the British artists William Morris (1834-96) and Edward Burne-Jones (1893-98) for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám which was translated in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald. The author notes that two copies of the manuscript can be differentiated by Burne-Jones’s involvement in the designs, details Morris’s biographer Mackail’s account of the colour scheme adopted for the patterns in the manuscript, and compares the second version of the `Ynglings’ manuscript with patterns on the London manuscript for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. She notes Morris’s interest in designs featuring female musicians, traces the history of the small manuscript format, and examines Morris and Burne-Jones’s reasons for avoiding illustrating the dramatic segments of the text.

Khaiyâmî

Khaiyâmî. F. de Blois.
In: Persian literature. Vol. 5, part 2. London, The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ire, 1994, p. 356-380.

Biographical and bibliographical survey of Khayyám’s life, works and the study and translations of his rubáiyát.

FitzGerald’s recasting of the “Rubáiyát”

FitzGerald’s recasting of the “Rubáiyát”. Parichehr Kasra.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 130 (1980) 3, pp. 458–489

Summary

It was in 1859 when FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát was published anonymously. The masterpiece was rescued by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and Whitley Stokes; yet it is difficult to say who first discovered it in Bernard Quaritch’s penny box. The discovery of this literary triumph was the beginning of an enthusiastic search for the identification of its highly gifted translator. Several men appear in this search. Among them are Carlyle, Ruskin, Browning, a Harvard professor of fine arts by the name of Charles Eliot Norton, and Edward Burne-Jones, one of the Victorian painters. The identification of the translator intrigued the highly challenging task of finding the original Persian rubā’īs of Omar Khayyám which had inspired the English poet to write these beautiful English quatrains. With Cowell’s assistance, Edward Heron-Allen pointed at certain rubāis as the roots of FitzGerald’s quatrains. Several decades later, in 1959, Arberry published The Romance of the Rubáiyát, in which he showed his additional work in the same direction. However, a careful study of FitzGerald’s poem reveals that both Heron-Allen and Arberry have oversimplified the make up of the sources. To trace those elements of FitzGerald’s translation which are drawn from his general readings of other Persian literary works is nearly impossible. But a close re-examination of his quatrains shows the complexity of the use he has made of the Ouseley and Calcutta manuscripts . It is to this end that the followingp ages are devoted.

Omar Khayyam: astronomer, mathematician and poet

Omar Khayyam: astronomer, mathematician and poet. John Andrew Boyle.
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 52 (1969) 1, p. 30-45

General article investigating what is known about Khayyám, the years of his birth and death, his background, and the various manuscripts that have come to light in recent years.

The earliest collections of O. Khayyam

The earliest collections of O. Khayyam. V. Minorsky.
In: Yádníme-ye Jan Rypka 1967. Collection of articles on Persian and Tajik literature. Prague, Academia; The Hague, Paris, Mouton & Co., 1967. pp. 107-118.

When in 1949—52 the three anthologies of Omar Khayyam dated 604/1208, 613/1216 and 658/1259 appeared in quick succession in the West it was quite natural to hail them as our guides for establishing the much discussed poetical heritage of Khayyam.

ʻOmar Khayyām miscellanea

ʻOmar Khayyām miscellanea. B. Csillik.
Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 11 (1960), nr. 1-3, p. 57-68.

It was in 1859 that Edward FitzGerald published at his own cost a small booklet of translations which since has, with the passing of many years, earned world fame for the name of ‘Omar Khayyäm — known until then in Europe only as an astronomer, geometrician and mathematician — and also for the name of the translater. It is to this centenary occasion that I wish to contribute the following minor notes and observations.