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Robert Graves’s Mythopoetic Hospitality

Robert Graves’s Mythopoetic Hospitality. Sara Greaves
In: HAL Open Science, 2023

This article draws on poetry criticism, translation studies and, briefly, hospitality studies to revisit the controversial translation of The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah. Graves took an interest in Sufism, especially as a ‘force of mental power which could be created by telepathic communication’ and worked together with the Shah brothers to dislodge Fitzgerald’s nineteenth-century best-selling version and replace it with what was intended to be a founding text of twentieth-century Western Sufism, a ‘secondary original’. Nevertheless, the poet polymath had his own agenda, an act of mythopoetic hospitality that the controversy should not be allowed to overshadow.

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.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayaam

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayaam. By Simon R. Gladdish. Independently published, 2017. – 36 p.; 23 x 15 cm. – ISBN: 978-1973217572.

111 quatrains. – Rhymed version of the translation by Graves and Ali-Shah.

Preface
Introduction
Skepticism vs. Sufism debate
Editions
Character of translation
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayaam

Khayyam studies in Russia

Khayyam studies in Russia. Sultanova Zulkhumor Sabatullaevna.
In: Anglisticum. Journal of the Association-Institute for English Language and American Studies, 11 (2022) 12, p. 34-40

Summary

The article discusses in detail the stages of formation and evolution of Khayyam studies in Russia and its important approaches. On the basis of real and concrete acts, it is proved that V. Jukovsky laid the foundations in the Russian-Khayyam oriental science by writing “Omar Khayyam and the “wandering”, rubaiyat”, raising the question of the method of selecting and highlighting the original Khayyam rubaiyat. Starting from the twenties of the last century, Khayyam studies gradually formed and developed, and the study of the issues of time, life and work of Khayyam was in the center of attention of Russian Howarists. His connection with the literary and cultural environment, his connection with politicians and writers has always been the subject of close attention of scientists. Features of the life time, literary environment and Khayyam’s connection with political figures, including Nizamulmulk, Hasan Sabbah and some poets and historians, with an analysis of the works of A.Bolotnikov, A.E. Krumsky, S.B. Morochnik, B.A. Rosenfeld, R.M. Aliev M.N. Usmonov and others. With a comparative analysis in the article, the contribution of such scientists as B.A. Rosenfeld and A.P. Yushkevich is especially appreciated in the knowledge and evaluation of Khayyam’s scientific activities, his role in the development of the science of philosophy and the revival of the Galilean calendar.

Pessoa, Borges and Khayyam

Pessoa, Borges and Khayyam. Fabrizio Boscaglia
Variaciones Borges, 2015, nr. 40, pp. 41–64.

The fascinating possibility of an encounter between Pessoa and Borges in Lisbon, in May 1924, at the end of Borges’s second trip in Europe, has been the departing point for some comparative readings on these authors (Rodriguez Monegal 15-16; Ferrari and Pizarro 91; Balderston 168). The author wants to imagine that, if it had happened, they would have discussed, among other things, a work which both would later mention in their upcoming publications and that would become an important reference to both of them. It is the Rubaiyat of the Persian poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), in the famous English translation by the English poet Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883), first published in 1859.