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The Hunter Rubáiyát: illustrating Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam in an contemporary Australian setting

The Hunter Rubáiyát: illustrating Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam in an contemporary Australian setting. Tallulah Cunningham. Newcastle, University of Newcastle, 2015.

Summary

Edward FitzGerald’s poem Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám has been illustrated over a hundred and fifty times during the decade and a half since its first publication. These illustrations have depicted exotic, arcadian other-places that ignore the poem’s frequent endorsement to live with immediacy. My Practice-based Creative PhD project has focused on producing a visual interpretation that reflects the immediate landscapes of my own physical situation: modern Australia. I have crafted illustrations that use the current landscapes and biotic content of the Hunter Valley, NSW, to emphasise not only the ongoing relevance of this poem to the brevity of human life but also my interpretations of the poem. To describe the poem’s frequent references to the passage of time I have drawn on my experience as a Natural History Illustrator, integrating the cycle of seasonal climatic events, plant and animal behaviour into my visual interpretation. I have also inverted the existing trend of exotic illustrations in a familiar physical context (that of a book) by presenting my depiction of the familiar, local environments in two exotic formats. These formats are based on Japanese narrative-scrolls and woodblock prints, providing unusual and intentionally tactile creative objects.

The influence of epicurean thought on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

The influence of epicurean thought on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Craig A. Leisy.
Manchester, Shires Press, 2015. xv, 265 pages ; 22 cm. ISBN: 978-1-60571-277-2.

Summary:
The freethinker philosophy of Omar Khayyam, as expressed in his verses, was out of step with his society in the medieval Islamic world. However, his thinking was consistent with that of other freethinkers in the Middle East and may be traced to materialists in ancient Greece such as Democritus (atomism), and Epicurus (341-271 BCE). This book explores evidence that the Persian poet Omar Khayyam, and other poets in the medieval Islamic world, were influenced by the freethinkers in ancient Greece, the source of the conflict between science and religion

Nearer the heart’s desire. Poets of the Rubaiyat: a dual biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald

Nearer the heart’s desire. Poets of the Rubaiyat: a dual biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald. Robert D. Richardson. New York, Bloomsbury USA, 2016. x, 195 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9781620406533

Summary:

“Weaving together the biographies of two poets separated by some eight-hundred years, Robert Richardson brings to life one of the most famous– and ancient works of poetry in all existence”–Front jacket flap

A Thousand and One Nights. The art of folklore, literature, poetry, fashion & book design of the Islamic world

A Thousand and One Nights. The art of folklore, literature, poetry, fashion & book design of the Islamic world. Hiroshi Unno. Tokyo, Pie Books, 2016. 295 p. ISBN: 978-4-7562-4816-9.

Summary:

Middle Eastern literature and poetry, including Arabian Nights and Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, has captured the imaginations of European people with its mysterious atmosphere and tales of exotic lands. From the 18th to the early 20th century, various European editions of these stories were published that included imaginative illustrations by notable European illustrators such as Nielsen, Dulac, Pogány, Bull and others. This book is a visual art collection of the world featured in such European illustrations and introduces the ancient Islamic manuscripts and art on which the illustrations are based. Text in Japanese, with an introduction and captions in English.

The man behind the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The life and letters of Edward FitzGerald

The man behind the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. The life and letters of Edward FitzGerald. William H. Martin and Sandra Mason. London; New York; I.B. Tauris, 2016. ISBN 9781784536596. xii, 274 pp.

Summary:

Its lines and verses have become part of the western literary canon and his translation of this most famous of poems has been continuously in print in for almost a century and a half. But just who was Edward FitzGerald? Was he the eccentric recluse that most scholars would have us believe? Is there more to the man than just his famous translation? In The Man Behind the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam William Martin and Sandra Martin go beyond the standard view. Drawing on their unique analysis of the more than 2,000 surviving letters of FitzGerald, together with evidence from his scrapbooks, commonplace books and materials from his personal library, they reveal a more convivial yet complex personality than we have been led to suppose.”

Pope’s Iliad and E. FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát

Pope’s Iliad and E. FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát.
In: The Lesbian Lyre: Reclaiming Sappho for the 21st Century. Jeffrey M. Duban. Clairview Books, 2016. 832p. ISBN 9781905570799

Summary:

Hailed by Plato as the “Tenth Muse” of ancient Greek poetry, Sappho is inarguably antiquity’s greatest lyric poet. Born over 2,600 years ago on the Greek island of Lesbos, and writing amorously of women and men alike, she is the namesake lesbian. What’s left of her writing, and what we know of her, is fragmentary. Duban provides a reader-friendly overview of Sappho’s times and themes, exploring her eroticism and Greek homosexuality overall.