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A Polemic on Knowledge: An Analysis of Two Persian Quatrains

A Polemic on Knowledge: An Analysis of Two Persian Quatrains. A. Ghajarjazi
In: Sufi non-conformism : antinomian trends in the Persianate cultural traditions. A.A. Seyed-Gohrab (ed.) Amsterdam : Leiden University Press, 2024. (Iranian Studies Series; 32) ISBN: 9789087284541. Pp. 179–201

Summary
Arash Ghajarjazi’s chapter is an excellent example of how Persian religious intellectuals discussed their ideas through quatrains. His chapter deals with a dispute elaborated in two Persian quatrains in a manuscript from 644/1256 that is preserved in the Shahīd ʿAlī Pashā Library in Istanbul. These quatrains deal with the use of reason, as opposed to tradition, to understand doctrinal religious issues. This is an allusion to the animosity between philosophers, who preferred discursive reasoning to explain religious doctrines, and those whose approach to religious principles was theological and based on prophetic tradition. The two approaches are indicated in each poem by a different term: rāy or “opinion,” and “reason,” and khabar or “tradition,” in both its general sense and as a term for the prophetic traditions, i.e., ḥadīth.

 

Remembering ‘Umar Khayyám

Remembering ‘Umar Khayyám. Episodes of Unbelief in the Reception Histories of Persian Quatrains. Arash Ghajarjazi. Berlin, De Gruyter, 2025. 340 p., 18 illus. ISBN: 9783111617077. (Sufism studies; 3)

This book explores the Persian sage ʿUmar Khayyām and the globally renowned quatrains (rubāʿiyyāt) attributed to him from a new angle. These quatrains have unleashed responses from Sufis and Islamic theologians, fostering secular thought in the Persianate world. From the early 12th century to the present, ʿUmar Khayyām’s persona has been a source of inspiration for various literate communities. This monograph addresses an undesirable gap in Khayyām scholarship by re-examining the reception of his quatrains within a changing collective memory. It investigates a wide range of texts and objects, including Sufi texts, chronicles, mystical poetry anthologies, memorial monuments, Victorian illustrations, and modern periodicals. The focus is on how the remembrance of Khayyām has contributed to the formation of a secular intellectual tradition in modern Iran. The book argues for a re-conceptualisation of Khayyām as a nexus of Sufi literature, memory, and secularity. Additionally, it critically examines traditional scholarship on Khayyām’s biography and the debates regarding the authenticity of his quatrains. This work aims to connect scholars of Sufism Studies, memory studies, and Persian and Islamic Studies.

Secular Pleasures and Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Secular Pleasures and Fitzgerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. A. Çelikkol.
Victorian Poetry, 51 (2013) 4, pp. 511-532.

The author starts from the point of view that FitzGerald’s poem “imagines a secular experience that resists the reign of reason. Musing on transcendental matters cannot help the speaker to make sense of his own existence, but neither can rational inquiry. (…) he relates to the material world around him by seeking and embracing pleasure. Through the senses of wonder, connectedness, and enchantment inspired by the self’s engagement with the natural world, FitzGerald transfers some of the most fulfilling aspects of religion onto a secular experience.” The essays then goes on to demonstrate how this idea is an “articulation of some of the insights that have come to inform the critical study of the secular today”.

The discovery of the Rubáiyát

The discovery of the Rubáiyát. Robert Bernard Martin.
In: Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám. Ed. by H. Bloom. Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 2004. p. 77-95.
(From With Friends Possessed: A Life of Edward FitzGerald, 1985.)

Martin considers the death of Fitzgerald’s great friend, William Browne, as the significant event which shaped the author’s life. The consensus to explain the Rubaiyat’s success is that “the times were ripe” for works repudiating the traditional religious morality and attempting to find an alternative to it. It is indeed startling to realise that the date of the Rubaiyat’s first appearance, 1859, coincides with that of Darwin’s Origin of Species.

Young Eliot’s Rebellion

Young Eliot’s Rebellion. V.M. d’Ambrosio.
In: Edward FitzGerald’s The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Ed. by H. Bloom. Philadelphia, Chelsea House, 2004. p. 119-149.
(From Eliot Possessed: T. S. Eliot and FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat. 1989)

The reception to the Rubaiyat in America is presented in “Young Eliot’s Rebellion” (pp. 119-149), where Vinni Marie D’Ambrosio introduces us to the influence it had on T.S. Eliot who discovered it in 1902. The ambiance of the time was pervaded by the rage for or against the Rubaiyat, which was considered to have played a role in the breakdown of America’s Protestant religion and of the Temperance ethic that the religion had subsumed. This cultural milieu of Eliot as a youth explains several of his poems and, as the author concludes, the youthful Eliot may have felt he was “not an imitator of Omar, but a manly, if secret, disciple of him”. (Abstract from: Abstracta Iranica)

Attempts at locating the Rubaiyat in Indian philosophical thought

Attempts at locating the Rubaiyat in Indian philosophical thought. A. Rangarajan.
In: The great ‘Umar Khayyám. Leiden, Leiden University Press, 2012. pp. 233–243.

In this article Rangarajan gives a metaphysical reading of Khayyám’s quatrains by comparing Khayyám’s description of human existence with the supernatural order of Hinduism. Moreover, the author concentrates on other religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika, showing how Khayyám’s philosophy matches the tenets of these religions.