A new issue of Omariana, nr. 7 (Winter 2019) is now available. As usual you will find new books, recent articles and more.
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Jos Biegstraaten 1944-2018
Jos Biegstraaten, founder and long-time president of the Dutch Omar Khayyám Society, passed away Friday March 23.
Biegstraaten was the first in the Netherlands to bring Dutch enthusiasts and lovers of Omar together. They formed a small group of four, meeting twice a year in an informal setting, discussing and exchanging information about Khayyám and the Rubáiyát.
The club soon developed into a more serious society, including academics, publishers, translators and collectors, their efforts resulting in yearbooks, catalogues, contributions to journals and magazines, concerts and exhibitions and more. All of this thanks to Biegstraaten’s never ending enthusiasm and inspiration.
Jos was also a keen collector of rubaíyát editions. He loved to meet and talk to people who shared his interest, and he was proud to be a member of the prestigious London Omar Khayyam Club.
A particular field of interest became the ‘Omar Khayyám parody’, in which he was an expert. As if to express with Omar that life and life’s questions should be taken with a smile.
The Dutch Society will remember Jos Biegstraaten as a true friend of Omar, and a friend of all omarians.
New issue of Omariana newsletter
A new issue of Omariana, nr. 4 (2017) is now available. As usual you will find new books, recent articles and more.
Please use the subscription form if want to receive Omariana in your email box.
New editions
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Los Rubaiyat de Omar Jayam. Segundo libro de la colleción: La verdad sobre Los Rubaiyat. Introducción, investigación y versión al español de la primera versión al inglés de Edward FitzGerald. Mar Escribano. Editorial Anticuario, 2017. 92 p. ISBN: 9781547094875. |
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The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Rendered into English verse by Edward FitzGerald. With illustrations by Edmund Dulac. Mireola, Calla Editions, 2017. 160 p. ISBN: 9781606601129.
Republication of the edition published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1909. |
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Das Buch Der Vierzeiler. Khaled Tobar; Salah Dschahin; Ibn Arous; Omar Chajjam. Welten, 2017. 76 p. ISBN: 978-1978164451 |
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Die Sinnsprüche Omars des Zeltmachers. Rubaijat-I-Omar- I-Khaijam. Aus dem Persischen übersetz und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Friedrich Rosen. Berlin, Insel Verlag, 2017. ISBN: 978-3-458-19433-0. (Insel-Bücherei Nr. 1433)
Hardback. Reprint of the 1929 edition by Insel Verlag. Included are five illustrations taken from the 1872 edition by William Morris. With Erläuterungen und Nachwort by the translator. |
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Rubaiyat of Khayyam: In Farsi with English Translation. Reza Nazari (Creator), Somayeh Nazari (Creator). CreateSpace, 2017. 92 p. ISBN: 978-1547000517.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in Persian and translations in English. This bilingual book can be useful for students and enjoyable for poetry lovers of any age. Not only will poems improve your Persian language, but they’ll help your understanding of Persian culture. Students will have ample opportunities to enrich their Persian learning experience. |
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayaam. By Simon R. Gladdish. Independently published, 2017. 41 p. ISBN: 978-1973217572
A new rhyming version of Robert Graves’ translation of The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayaam. Also available as Kindle Edition. |
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‘Omar Khayyám : the Persian Text with Paraphrase, and the First and Fourth Editions of Fitzgerald’s Translation. By E.H.Rodwell. London, Routledge, 2017. 110 p. ISBN: 9781138059382. (Routledge Library Editions; Persia; Volume 4) Available as hardback and eBook.This book, first published in 1931, shows in a simple, sound and lucid manner how the genius of two poets (Omar Khayyam and FitzGerald) brought together by the genius of an Orientalist (Professor Cowell) culminated in a very strange, very beautiful and profound English poem. This book is concerned with the genuineness of the verses ascribed to Omar Khayyam, and consists of a comparison of the original Arabic, a paraphrase, and FitzGerald’s first and fourth editions. |
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Rubaiyat e Omar Khayyam (A lucid presentation) by Y.R. Khadke. Published by S.V. Sarmukadam, Pune. No year given. Available as Kindle eBook.Khadke’s attempt to elucidate FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát, by rephrasing the text and comtemporizing the idiom. |
New issue of Omariana
A new issue of Omariana, nr. 3 (2017) is now available. As usual you will find new books, recent articles and more.
Please use the subscription form if want to receive Omariana in your email box.
Omar Khayyám Research Day
The Nederlands Omar Khayyám Genootschap (Dutch Omar Khayyám Society) is planning an Omar Khayyám Research Day, May 27, 2017. The event will take place in Leiden, in co-operation with Leiden University and Iran Netherlands Trade and Cultural Center.
PROGRAMME
13.00 Words of Welcome
13.15 Bill Martin & Sandra Mason
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the West
How Edward FitzGerald & Edward Cowell made it popular
14.00 Nasrollah Pourjavady
Omar Khayyam’s Idea of Being in His Quatrains
14.45 Break
15.15 Asghar Seyed-Gohrab
Transgressing the Law: Khayyam and his Antinomian Views
15.45 Jos Coumans
Comparative tables of the Calcutta & Bodleian quatrains
16.15 Rokus de Groot
Musical approaches to Omar Khayyâm’s Rubâiyât in the Netherlands
17.00 Concluding remarks
For more details on time and location, see the poster, or contact Asghar Seyed-Gohrab on a.a.seyed-gohrab@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
“The Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art”
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A three volume catalog of the first artists of FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát, “The Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art, 1884-1913” is now available. The volumes are compiled by Danton H. O’Day, “to stimulate new interest in detailing the complete artistic history of the amazing collection of Fitz’s and Omar’s four-line verses. Another was to provide in one place detailed examples of each of the artists who contributed to The Golden Age of Rubáiyát Art.”
The 8 x 10” hard-cover books are printed on photo-quality paper with a full colour printed cover.
The lavishly illustrated books contain photos not available since their first publication, two new artists, charts and tables, and more.
The books are available from Blurb Bookstore.
| Volume | ISBN | # Pages | Hardcover |
| I. The Illustrators | 9781366232786 | 168 | US$ 84.99 |
| II. Popular Themes | 9781366232717 | 68 | US$ 59.99 |
| III. The Decorators | 9781366232656 | 90 | US$ 64.99 |
Please contact: Danton H. O’Day for more information (danton.oday@utoronto.ca)
New editions
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Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Introduction and notes by Robert D. Richardson; original art by Lincoln Perry. New York, Bloomsbury, 2016. ISBN 9781620406564 |
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The mystic Rubáiyát. [Illustrated by Penelope Cline]. Fig Tree Press, 2016. 75 tarot cards. |
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The quatrains of Omar Khayyam. Translated from the Persian by Joobin Bekhrad. Bloomington, Balboa Press, 2016. ISBN 9781504362542 |
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The Rubáiyát. Along the Red Book Road.Quatrains of Omar Khayyám rendered into English verse by Edward FitzGerald. Introduction by Louis Untermeyer. Paintings by Linda Carter Holman. Oregon House, Red Shoe Publishing, 2015. ISBN 9780976973225. |
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John Morris-Jones: Penillion Omar Khayyâm. Golygwyd Dafydd Glyn Jones. Bangor, Dalen Newydd, 2015. ISBN 9780993251016 |
The Cinderella of the Arts
Shepherds bookbinders, in co-operation with Oak Knoll Press, recently published The Cinderella of the Arts. A short history of Sangorski & Sutcliff, a London bookbinding firm established in 1901.
It is a successor to Bob Shepherds book Lost on the Titanic (2001), and this new edition draws a wider perspective of the firm’s history, including the dramatic story of the second ‘Great Omar’. The history also highlights the Sutcliffe years and the years that Stanley Bray was in command. It is illustrated with colourfull images of some of the finest bindings, and with photographs of the people of the firm.
London and New Castle, DE: Shepherds and Oak Knoll Press, 2015. 200 pp.
ISBN: 9781584563402.
Newsletter – restart
Omariana started in April 1998 as a newsletter, initially issued on paper, and later on as an e-mail newsbulletin. After a couple of years it seemed a logical step to turn it into a weblog, and this is what you are reading now.
However, my impression today is that Omariana might be more effective when you get the news at home in stead of going out to get it when you don’t even know if there is anything new.
So after a break of a couple of years I have decided to start this email newsletter again. It will appear once or twice a year, or whenever there is something important to inform you about, and it will exist in addition to the Omariana weblog. Please subscribe by using the subscription form.