Omar Khayyam (1048 – 1131 AD) is one of the most augmented scholar of our age, so that two views have been registered on the way of studying his intellectual and philosophical personality; historical Khayyam and literal Khayyam. Although Khayyam’s quatrains are considered as one of the undisclosed knots in Persian literature, hundreds of researches have been conducted to find out his true beliefs, views, and philosophical approaches. This expositional caravan is continuing. His reputation in the last centuries owe to the quatrains attributed to him. None of his contemporaries and not a single source has quoted the name of Khayyam as the composer of quatrains (Rubaiyat).
Nevertheless, the resources and references to which we refer to read his quatrains are divided into two groups; first, the sources that explicitly mention the name of Omar Khayyam and his quatrains and consist of 28 sources dated from the end of 6th century to the 8th century AH. Secondly, the sources in which the poems have been attributed to Khayyam without revealing the name of the speaker. Some of these resources have attracted the attention of researchers only because of their originality and antiquity[1]. Another classification carried out for quatrains are four; authentic quatrains, quasi- Khayyam quatrains, imitative quatrains, and non- Khayyam quatrains[2].
Khayyam’s reputation in the recent centuries owe to his quatrains translated by Edward FitzGerald in 1859. Subsequently, the quatrains have been translated into more than 40 languages and more than seven hundred books have been compiled about him[3].
One of the reason of which the West, Europe, and America have greatly relied upon Khayyam’s poetry is the existence of the Nihilistic tracks and the lack of belief in the hereafter in most of the quatrains translated by FitzGerald. It must be mentioned that the poems have been extensively manipulated or distorted along the history in both the East and the West.
Persian speaking Danish, Arthur Christensen (1875- 1945)[4], was the first who devoted to the determination of dividing original quatrains from fakes. He applied different methods for recognizing the authentic quatrains. Russian scholar, Vladimir Zhukovsky[5] in 1897 introduced a version of Khayyam’s Quatrains titled ”Omar Khayyam and the Wandering Quatrains” in which another method was used to identify the original quatrains. He removed 82 of the Rubaiyat.
The detection and determination of Khayyam’s real quatrains seems to be time consuming and far reaching attempt, because the origin scripts are not in hand. It is worth to remind that Khayyam was not then as shiny as we see him now. In spite of valuable and determinant innovations offered to the world in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, music, and medicine, he passed an ordinary life in his time. His quatrains in his lifetime were silent and far from theological and philosophical debates.
Many of the poems contributed to Khayyam belong to Afdal ad-Din Kashani a Persian poet and philosopher (1213- 1214 AD)[6]. Khayyam’s biography, treatises and other works do not suffer from any kind of ambiguity, but his quatrains have remained in a permanent skepticism atmosphere.
One of the oldest resource in which 151 quatrains have been explicitly related to Khayyam is Risālah fī al-tanbīh by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in 1209 AD[7]. Another old reference to Khayyam is in the letter from Ghaznavi Senai(1080-1131 AD) to Khayyam. Khayyam also has been mentioned in other books such as Al-Hakmah by Abdul Rahman Khazini (flourished c. 1115- 1130 AD), Four Treatises by Nizami Aruzi(1110- 1161 AD), and Tatammah Suan al-Hekmah by Abolhassan Beyhaqi (1100- 1169 AD).
Bibliography
[1] MirAfzali Seyyed Ali, 2003
[2] Ketabshenasiy-e Khayyam 1347, Fooladvand M. Mahdi, 1968
[3] “Iran Land" weekly journal, No. 68, October 24, 1995.
[4] Critical Studies in the Rubaiyat of Umar-l- Khayyam. Christenson Arthur
[5] Professor at the University of St. Petersburg
[6] Tabrizi Rashidi, quoted by Homaei, 2010
[7] Mir Afdhali Seyyed Ali, Khayyam’s quatrains in old history, 2003
