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Orientalist and liberating discourses of East-West difference – Revisiting Edward Said and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Orientalist and liberating discourses of East-West difference – Revisiting Edward Said and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Mohammad Tamdgidi.
The Discourse of sociological practice 7 (2005), nrs. 1&2 (Spring/Fall), p. 187-201.

The article focuses on the text of Professor Edward Said with regards to the use of East-West difference. The author presents an argument that distinguishes the literary and political rhetoric of Said and the substantive point he made with regards to East-West difference and orientalism. According to the view of Said, human history is a history of constant reciprocity and exchange of ideas and influences across cultures and traditions.

Traduire c’est trahir: des Arabian Nights aux Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Traduire c’est trahir: des Arabian Nights aux Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Laurent Bury.
In: L’orientalisme victorien dans les arts visuels et la littérature. Laurent Bury. Grenoble, ELLUG, 2011. ISBN: 978-2843101762

Il est une forme de colonisation plus pacifique, mais aussi moins univoque, puisqu’elle autorise une influence réciproque : l’assimilation d’une culture par une autre que suppose l’exercice de la traduction. Avec l’engouement qu’elle suscite pour les langues lointaines, la « Renaissance orientale » est à l’origine d’une floraison d’arrangements et d’adaptations, dans lesquels les Victoriens refusent de s’effacer humblement, préférant rester auteurs à part entière. Comme le montrera l’exemple de quelques traductions orientales produites au XIXe siècle, l’intervention de l’interprète y est souvent très visible.

‘Umar Khayyám au mirroir de quelques interprétations modernes, de FitzGerald à Hedáyat

‘Umar Khayyám au mirroir de quelques interprétations modernes, de FitzGerald à Hedáyat. Jacques Huré.
Luqmán 17 (2001) nr. 1, p. 7-15.

‘Umar Khayyám peut être vu, aujouid’hui, comme un «agitateur d’idées», le carrefour où se rassemblent ceux qui s’interrogent sur la portée des textes anciens d’où émane cette notion moderne qu’est l’incertitude du sens, ceux qui s’interrogent sur le rapport entre le discours spirituel et le discours philosophique, et, plus généralement ceux qui discutent de la pensee “oriëntale”, telle qu’elle doit prendre place dans tout débat ouvert aujourd’hui en Occident.

Orientalism translated – Omar Khayyam through Persian, English and Hindi

Orientalism translated – Omar Khayyam through Persian, English and Hindi. Harish Trivedi.
In: Colonial transactions. English literature in India. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1995., p. 29-52.

The Khayyam texts assembled in this essay constitute a partial but significant narrative of the formation of the modem Indian identity not only in terms of a Perso-Indian response to a Perso-Anglian poetic construct, but also in terms of the constantly shifting grounds of the linguistic basis of that response. The progress of Khayyam from Persian not initially into Hindi but into English into Hindi into English-English into Indian-English not only reflects closely the linguistic-cultural evolution of modem India from c. 1780 to 1989: it also provides a complex ‘oriëntalist’ sub-text of our colonial and post-colonial condition over this period.

In search of Omar Khayyam

In search of Omar Khayyam. Ali Dashti. Translated from the Persian by L.P. Elwell-Sutton. London, Allen & Unwin, 1971. ISBN: 0048910420 (Persian studies monographs; 1). Reprinted by Routledge, 2011.

Contents

Introduction.
Note on Transliteration.
Preface to the Persian Second Edition.
Part 1: In Search of Khayyam
1. Khayyam as Poet
2. Khayyam as Seen by his Contemporaries
3. Meanness or Common Sense?
4. Hero or Martyr?
5. A Dispute with a Prince
6. Khayyam from his own Writings
7. Khayyam and Sufism
8. Khayyam and Isma’ilism
Part 2: In Search of the Quatrains
1. The Key Quatrains
2. The Axis of Life and Death
3. Khayyam’s Literary Style
4. Khayyam and his Imitators
5. Khayyam’s Wine-Poetry
6. Khayyam as Seen by the West
7. The Selected Quatrains
8. Some Khayyam-like Quatrains
Part 3: Random Thoughts
1. ‘Whence we have come, and whither do we go?’
2. ‘If it was bad, whose was the fault but His?’
3. ‘A tiny gnat appears – and disappears’
4. ‘The Withered Tulip Never Blooms Again’
5. ‘Whether this Breath I take will be My Last.’
Appendix I: Biographical Notes.
Appendix II: Glossary of Technical Terms.
Bibliography.
Index.

Edmund Dulac’s Book Graphics and the Problem of Orientalism in British Illustration of Edwardian Era and the Second Decade of XXth Century

Edmund Dulac’s Book Graphics and the Problem of Orientalism in British Illustration of Edwardian Era and the Second Decade of XXth Century. Dmitry Lebedev.
In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education. Atlantis Press, November 2019.

Summary

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, Europe-wide enthusiasm about the Eastern art, which varied from Iranian miniature to Japanese engraving, led to the popularity of many artists whose works were impacted by Orientalism. In these circumstances, large London publishers, annually producing luxury gift books for Christmas, trying to adjust to the mass excitement around the Eastern art, invited young and promising graphic artists to illustrate these publications. Among the invited artists who actively cooperated with such publishers was the outstanding French-English illustrator Edmund Dulac (1882-1953). The article reveals one of the key aspects of Dulac’s oeuvre. The author considers artist’s attempts to convey the thematic and stylistic originality of the Oriental art in the context of book illustration of the Edwardian era and the second decade of XXth century. The work traces Edmund Dulac’s creative career and examines the cycles of his illustrations in order to identify both typical and original stylistic and compositional techniques used by the author to create works in the spirit of orientalist aesthetics. The article also deals with oriental works of Dulac’s contemporaries and analyses them in comparison with each other.

The wine of wisdom. The life, poetry and philosophy of Omar Khayyam

The wine of wisdom. The life, poetry and philosophy of Omar Khayyam. Mehdi Aminrazavi. Oxford, Oneworld Publishing, 2005. 396 p. ISBN: 1-85168-355-0.

Summary:
The intoxicating message of Khayyam’s famous Ruba‘iyyat created an image of exotic Orientalism in the West but, as author Mehdi Aminrazavi reveals, Khayyam’s achievements went far beyond the intoxicating message within these verses. Philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and mystic – his many different identities are examined here in detail, creating a coherent picture of this complex and often misunderstood figure.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Khayyam’s life and works
2. Reconstructing a tarnished image: Omar Khayyam according to his contemporaries and biographers
3. Khayyam within the intellectual context of his time
4. The Ruba’iyyat
5. Khayyam and sufism
6. Khayyam’s philosophical thought
7. Khayyam the scientist
8. Khayyam in the west
Epilogue
Appendix A: Translations of the philosophical treatises
Appendix B: The Ruba’iyyat – Edward FitzGerald’s translation
Appendix C: Arabic poems of Omar Khayyam
Notes
Bibliography
Index