The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

by Omar Khayyám

By the mid-1860s FitzGerald had thoughts of a second edition. Quaritch told Cowell that he thought ‘a small edition would sell’, and Cowell relayed this remark to FitzGerald;

Not only had Quaritch revealed FitzGerald’s name, but he was selling the poem at what seemed to FitzGerald a shamefully high price.

Quaritch agreed to publish a new edition of 200 copies (still with no contract, and no transfer of copyright); it appeared in February 1868, and sold far more quickly than FitzGerald (and perhaps Quaritch) anticipated.

FitzGerald’s major revisions to the verse text of the Rubáiyát were for the second (1868) and third editions (1872); for the prose text (his Preface and endnotes) we may add the fourth (1879).

In 1868 a significant strategic change was made to the title page, which instead of stating that the Rubáiyát had been ‘Translated into English Verse’ substitutes the term ‘Rendered’. The number of stanzas went up from 75 to 110, a very substantial addition was made to the Preface, and there were several new and expanded endnotes.

Like most authors, FitzGerald had a number of idiosyncratic spellings (Vizyr, coop’t, Fansy); and he continued, far into the nineteenth century, the outmoded Practice of spelling Nouns with initial Capitals.

FitzGerald himself did become uneasy about his capitals, and offered to surrender his control over the text to a professional ‘Critic’ (i.e. a publisher’s reader)—but not in respect of the Rubáiyát.

OMAR KHAYYÁM was born at Naishápúr in Khorassán in the latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth, Century.

Hasan al Sabbáh,

Nizám al Mulk,

Seljukian Dynasty

Crusades.

Mirkhond’s History of the Assassins.

Imám Mowaffak of Naishápur,

Abd-u-samad,

Hakim Omar Khayyám,

Ben Sabbáh.

Omar

Hasan Ben Sabbah’s

Imám Mowaffak

Khorassan to Transoxiana,

Ghazni and Cabul;

Hasan

Hasan became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians,—a party of fanatics who had long murmured in obscurity, but rose to an evil eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will. In a. d. 1090, he seized the castle of Alamút, in the province of Rúdbar, which lies in the mountainous tract, south of the Caspian sea; and it was from this mountain home he obtained that evil celebrity among the Crusaders as the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS, and spread terror through the Mohammedan world; and it is yet disputed whether the word Assassin, which they have left in the language of modern Europe as their dark memorial, is derived from the hashish, or opiate of hemp-leaves (the Indian bhang,) with which they maddened themselves to the sullen pitch of oriental desperation, or from the name of the founder of the dynasty, whom we have seen in his quiet collegiate days, at Naishápur.

What an interesting historical connection between Omar and Hasan. Never expected this

Nizámul- Mulk

Omar K...

At Naishápur thus lived and died Omar Khayyám, ‘busied,’ adds the Vizier, ‘in winning knowledge of every kind, and especially in Astronomy, wherein he attained to a very high pre-eminence.

Sultanate of Malik Shah,

When Malik Shah determined to reform the calendar, Omar was one of the eight learned men employed to do it; the result was the Jaláli era, (so called from Jalal-ul-din, one of the king’s names,)—‘

Zíji-Maliksháhí,”

“His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyám) signifies a Tent-maker, and he is said to have at one time exercised that trade, perhaps before Nizám-ul-Mulk’s generosity raised him to independence.

Attár, ‘a druggist,’

Assar, ‘an oil press...

Omar Khayyám,

Khwájah Nizámi of Samarcand, who was one of his pupils,

Though the Sultan “shower’d Favours upon him,” Omar’s Epicurean Audacity of Thought and Speech caused him to be regarded askance in his own Time and Country.

He is said to have been especially hated and dreaded by the Súfis, whose Practice he ridiculed, and whose Faith amounts to little more than his own when stript of the Mysticism and formal Compliment to Islamism which Omar would not hide under.

H...

Fir...

Having failed (however mistakenly) of finding any Providence but Destiny, and any World but This, he set about making the most of it; preferring rather to soothe the Soul through the Senses into Acquiescence with Things as they were, than to perplex it with vain mortifications after what they might be.

However this may be, his Worldly Pleasures are what they profess to be without any Pretence at divine Allegory: his Wine is the veritable Juice of the Grape: his Tavern, where it was to be had: his Sáki, the Flesh and Blood that poured it out for him: all which, and where the Roses were in Bloom, was all he profess’d to want of this World or to expect of Paradise.

Like his great Predecessor Firdúsi, who was as little of a Mystic; who scorned to use even a Word of the very language in which the New Faith came clothed; and who was suspected, not of Omar’s Irreligion indeed, but of secretly clinging to the ancient Fire-Religion of Zerdusht, of which so many of the Kings he sang were Worshippers.

For whatever Reason, however, Omar, as before said, has never been popular in his own Country, and therefore has been but charily transmitted abroad.

The Reviewer, who translates the foregoing Particulars of Omar’s Life, and some of his Verse into Prose, concludes by comparing him with Lucretius, both in natural Temper and Genius, and as acted upon by the Circumstances in which he lived.

Both indeed men of subtle Intellect and high Imagination, instructed in Learning beyond their day, and of Hearts passionate for Truth and Justice; who justly revolted from their Country’s false Religion, and false, or foolish, Devotion to it; but who yet fell short of replacing what they subverted by any such better Hope as others, upon whom no better Faith had dawned, had yet made a Law to themselves.

Lucre...

Epi...

Omar,

The original Rubáiyát (as, missing an Arabic Guttural, these Tetrastichs are more musically called), are independent Stanzas, consisting each of four Lines of equal, though varied, Prosody, sometimes all rhyming, but oftener (as here attempted) the third line suspending the Cadence by which the last atones with the former Two.

For Lucretian as Omar’s Genius might be, he cross’d that darker Mood with much of Oliver de Basselin Humour. Any way, the Result is sad enough: saddest perhaps when most ostentatiously merry: any way, fitter to move Sorrow than Anger toward the old Tentmaker, who, after vainly endeavouring to unshackle his Steps from Destiny, and to catch some authentic Glimpse of TOMORROW, fell back upon TODAY