Other Persian quatrains in Holland: the Roseraie du savoir of Husayn-i Ázád. J.T.P. de Bruijn.
In: The great ‘Umar Khayyám. Leiden, Leiden University Press, 2012. pp. 105-114.

De Bruijn explains how, from the nineteenth century onwards, Persian quatrains became fashionable in Dutch poetry. After briefly referring to two great Dutch poets, P.C. Boutens (1870-1943) and J.H. Leopold (1865-1925), De Bruijn concentrates on their common source, an anthology of Persian quatrains in two parts published in 1906 under the titles Gulzár-i ma ‘rifat and La Roseraie du Savoir respectively. The author of these Persian and French anthologies was a Persian by the name of Husayn-i Ázád, who was a physician at the provincial Qajar court of Isfahan. He travelled to London and Paris, but later settled in Paris, where he concentrated on European and Persian poetry. In his chapter, De Bruijn gives a vivid picture of Husayn-i Ázád’s life and how he tried to introduce treasures from the Persian literary tradition to a western public.