OMAR KHAYYAM

born May 18, 1048, Nishapur, Iran died Dec. 4, 1131, Nishapur Arabic in full Ghiyath Ad-din Abu Al-fath 'umar Ibn Ibrahim Al-khaiyami An-nishaburi, Persian Abu Ol-fath 'omar Ebn Ebrahim Ol-khayyami Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements but known to English-speaking readers for his roba'iyat (quatrains) in the version The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, published in 1859 by Edward FitzGerald (q.v.). His name Khayyam (Tentmaker) may have been derived from his father's trade. He received a good education in the sciences and philosophy in his native Neyshabur (Nishapur) and in Balkh and then went to Samarkand, where he completed an important treatise on algebra. He made such a name for himself that he was invited by the Seljuq sultan Malik-Shah to undertake the astronomical observations necessary for the reform of the calendar. He was also commissioned to build an observatory in the city of Esfahan in collaboration with other astronomers. After the death of his patron in 1092, Omar went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Returning to Neyshabur he taught and served the court from time to time by predicting events to come. Philosophy, jurisprudence, history, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy are among the subjects mastered by this brilliant man. Unfortunately, few of his prose writings survive; these include a few brief tracts on metaphysics and a treatise on Euclid. Omar's fame in the West rests upon the collection of roba'iyat, or quatrains, attributed to him. (A quatrain is a piece of verse complete in four rhymed lines, although in Omar's roba'iyat the third line usually does not rhyme.) Omar's poetry had attracted comparatively little attention until they inspired Edward FitzGerald to write his celebrated The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, containing such now-famous phrases as A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Breadand Thou, Take the Cash, and let the Credit go, and The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. These quatrains have been translated into almost every major language and are largely responsible for colouring European ideas about Persian poetry. Some scholars have doubted that Omar wrote poetry, because his contemporaries took no notice of his verse, and not until two centuries after his death did a few quatrains appear under his name. A.J. Arberry, however, using 13th-century manuscripts, has identified at least 250 authentic roba'iyat by him. Each of Omar's quatrains was originally composed on a particular occasion and forms a complete poem in itself. It was FitzGerald who conceived the idea of combining a series of these roba'iyat into a continuous elegy that had an intellectual unity and consistency lacking in the disconnected originals. FitzGerald's ingenious and felicitous paraphrasing gave his translations a memorable verve and succinctness. A close reading of the authentic verses reveals Omar as a man of deep thought, troubled by the questions of the nature of reality and the eternal, the impermanence and uncertainty of life, and man's relationship to God. Omar doubts the existence of divine providence and the afterlife, derides religious certainty, and is disturbed by man's frailty and ignorance. Finding no acceptable answers to his perplexities, he chooses to put his faith instead in a joyful appreciation of the fleeting and sensuous beauties of the material world. The idyllic nature of the modest pleasures he celebrates, however, cannot dispel his honest and straightforward brooding over fundamental metaphysical questions.