Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

by Khayyam, Omar; Fitzgerald, Edward

• ISBN13: 9781450551175
• ISBN10: 1450551173
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-23
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

"The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" received very little attention until it was discovered and rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald more than 700 after it was written. Omar Khayyam was a Persian astronomer, mathematician, and poet born in the later part of the 11th century. The rubai (or quatrain) which Khayyam used in "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" was the favorite verse form among the intellectuals, philosophers, and mystics of 11th and 12th-century Persia. Khayyam was one of these "free thinkers," as they were called. He did not believe in the cardinal Muslim tenet of the resurrection of the body after death, and suggested that drinking wine was better than worrying about religious theories and dogmas. While others have since translated "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," Fitzgerald's rendition captures the redeeming poetic beauty of Omar Khayyam's work so well that his rendition remains a benchmark true to the spirit if not the letter of the Persian poet.