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Appendix: two early reviews of the Rubaiyat

Appendix: two early reviews of the Rubaiyat.
Victorian Poetry, 46 (2008), nr 1, p. 105-125.

For many years it was thought that the earliest criticism of the Rubaiyat to appear in print was a review of the second edition, published in the North American Review in 1869, by Charles Eliot Norton. In 1960, however, an earlier review, dating from just six months after the publication of the first edition, was rediscovered in The Literary Gazette, a London weekly. (See Michael Wolff, “The Rubaiyat’s Neglected Reviewer: A Centennial Recovery,” VN 17 (1960): 4-6.)

Selected bibliography of FitzGerald criticism, 1959-2008

Selected bibliography of FitzGerald criticism, 1959-2008.
Victorian Poetry, 46 (2008), nr 1, p. 15-17.

The list includes the major critical contributions of the last fifty years. It does not include notes or short articles, nor the many editions of FitzGerald’s work, several of which contain very useful critical introductions.

Nozhat al-Majales

Nozhat al-Majales. Moḥammad Amin Riahi.
Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, 2008

NOZHAT AL-MAJĀLES, an anthology of some 4,000 quatrains (robāʿi; a total of 4,139 quatrains, 54 of which have been repeated in the text) by some 300 poets of the 5th to 7th/11th-13th centuries, compiled around the middle of the 7th/13th century by the Persian poet Jamāl-al-Din Ḵalil Šarvāni. The book is arranged by subject in 17 chapters (bābs) divided into 96 different sections (namaṭ). The anthology also includes 179 quatrains and an ode (qaṣida) of 50 distiches written by the author himself, who is also credited with one lyric (ḡazal) in Moḥammad Jājarmi’s Moʾnes al-aḥrār.

The benefits of reading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as pastoral

The benefits of reading the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as pastoral. Giuseppe Albano.
Victorian Poetry, 46 (2008), nr 1, p. 55-67.

On the publication of J. B. Nicolas’ French translations of Omar Khayyam –collected in book form as Les quatrains de Kheyam in 1867, having initially appeared in the Revue de l’Orient, de l’Algerie et des Colonies four years earlier–Edward FitzGerald was provoked into a caustic disagreement with its translator. The Frenchman held that Omar’s testaments to the benefits of drinking wine should not be taken literally, but should be seen in Sufi terms as representing an enlightened state of being.

Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat – an Antidote for Islamic Fundamentalism

Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat – an Antidote for Islamic Fundamentalism. N. Berdichevsky.
New English Review, (2007) November.

Omar Khayyam (1044-1123) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and mystic. His reputation was for a time highly regarded in Iran under the regime of the last Shah but by and large he has been held either in ignominy, contempt, total disregard or intentional oblivion by almost the entire Muslim world, and especially the Arab countries and his native Iran, ruled today by the clique of fanatical mullahs who represent the very targets of bigotry, asceticism and ignorance his verses derided in The Rubaiyat.

Martin Heidegger and Omar Khayyam on the Question of “Thereness” (Dasein)

Martin Heidegger and Omar Khayyam on the Question of “Thereness” (Dasein). M. Aminrazavi.
In: Islamic philosophy and occidental phenomenology on the perennial microcosm and macrocosm. Dordrecht, Springer, 2006. Vol. 2, pp. 277-287.

In comparing two philosophers who belong to two distinct philosophical traditions, one often runs the risk of superficiality. That is, by finding similarities, either conceptual or linguistic, one may conclude that the thinkers in question are advocating the same concepts. One may go further and ask, “So what if the two figures belonging to two different schools of thought agree with respect to one or a set of ideas?”

Strategies of appropriation: Khayyam and Rumi

Strategies of appropriation: Khayyam and Rumi. F. Farahzad.
In: Translation Studies 4 (2006), pp. 44-52.

This paper attempts to explore the issue of representation by focusing on two major translations of Persian poetry and literature, one produced in mid 19th century and the other produced in late 20th century.