The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (1903)

S$71.00

The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (1903)

S$71.00

Title: The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
Author: Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald (trans), E. H. Whinfield (trans), J. B. Nicolas (trans), Edward Heron-Allen, Robert Arnot
Publisher: M. Walter Dunne, 1903.
Condition: Hardcover, some rubbing to cover. Uncut edges. Gilt to top edge. First few pages fragile, about to come off but still attached. Otherwise good. 3 illustrated plates.

SKU: sufisticquatrains-omarkhayyam Categories: , , ,

About the book:

This is an interesting edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam because it contains the work of three different early translators of the Rubaiyat: Edward Fitzgerald (101 quatrains), E. H. Whinfield (500 quatrains), and J. B. Nicolas (464 quatrains) – thus making it one of the most complete editions available. Also, it identifies the differences between the different editions/versions of Fitzgerald’s translations, with a commentary by Edward Heron-Allen.

The contents include:

  • General Introduction
  • Introduction to the First Edition of Edward Fitzgerald’s Translation
  • The Complete Fitzgerald First Edition
  • An Analysis of Edward Fitzgerald’s Translation (Fifth Edition) by Edward Heron-Allen
  • Variations Between the Second, Third and Fourth Editions of Fitzgerald’s Translation
  • Comparative Table of Stanzas in the Four Editions of Fitzgeradl
  • The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam Translated by E. H. Whinfield
  • E. H. Whinfield Translation
  • The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam Translated into Prose from the French Version of Monsieur J. B. Nicolas
  • Translation of the Nicolas Text

About Omar Khayyam (from wikipedia):

Omar Khayyám  (18 May 1048–1131) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, and music.

Born in Nishapur, at a young age he moved to Samarkand and obtained his education there, afterwards he moved to Bukhara and became established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. Recognized as the author of one of the most important treatises on algebra before modern times as reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He contributed to a calendar reform.

His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, have not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings. Zamakhshari referred to him as “the philosopher of the world”. Many sources have testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Ibn Sina in Nishapur where Khayyám was born and buried and where his mausoleum today remains a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every year.

Outside Iran and Persian speaking countries, Khayyám has had an impact on literature and societies through the translation of his works and popularization by other scholars. The greatest such impact was in English-speaking countries; the English scholar Thomas Hyde (1636–1703) was the first non-Persian to study him. The most influential of all was Edward FitzGerald (1809–83), who made Khayyám the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated translation and adaptations of Khayyám’s rather small number of quatrains (rubaiyaas) in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.