The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
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B 1.172.553 Digitized by Coogle Digitized by Coogle Digitized by Coogle THE RUBA’IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM Digitized by Google This Edition has bttn specially revised by the Translator for L. C. Page and Company. Digitized by Google *-' THE RUBA IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM AFACSI M I LE-OFTHE MSifl*! *1 ik INTHEBODLE lAN-LI B RARY-lf TRANSLATEDANOEDITEO# ,‘EbmRDHERONALLENl m Digitized by Google ?K G5I> .ES nsc ! Digitized by Coogle THE RUBA’IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM BEING A Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with a Transcript into modem Persian Characters, TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY, AND SOME SIDELIGHTS UPON EDWARD FITZGERALD’S POEM BY EDWARD HERON-ALLEN ,iyj lia^ )l iS kilc SECOND EDITION Carefnlty Revised and considerably Enlarged BOSTON L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY, INC. MDCCCXCVIII Digitized by Google ?\( (iSlI COPYRIGHT i8o8 by L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY. INC. Entered at Stationers,' Hall, Loyidon. Digitized by G Digitizod by Google fJt). /./f- TABLE OF CONTENTS fAGI Introduction i— ulii English tfansUtion i Photographic facsimile of MS. 29 Bibliographical references, for abbreviationb in tlic notes ns Facsimile pages with transcript, translation, and notes 110 Bibliography of Omar Khayyam - • • 281 Some Sidelights upon Edward FitzGerald's Poem, ’’ “ The Rnba'iyat of Omar Khayyam - • 280 Digitized by Google PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION I CONFESS that I am surprised—and agreeably so—to find that, within six months of the first publication of this volume, a second and larger edition is called for. I am not, however, so blinded with satisfaction as not to realize that the success of my book has been brought about, not so much by any intrinsic merits of its own, as by the ever-widening interest that is felt in the matchless poem of FitzGerald which was primarily responsible for its appearance. I have taken advantage of the opportunity thus afforded me to make several revisions suggested by scholarly critics, and to add a considerable mass of material which was not selected, or not discovered, in January last. 1 am glad to have found this further occasion for addressing my readers, if for no other reason than to record my indebtedness to Professor E. Denison Ross, who has not only helped me very greatly with the revision, but has had the kindness to correct the proofs of this edition for me during my absence from England. EDWARD HERON-ALLEN. Venice, May, i8gS. Digitized by Google ' With a pathetic insistence, equalled only by that with which King Charles's head intruded upon the memorial of Mr. Dick, a few biographical details concerning the Life of Ghias ud-din Abul Path 'Omar bin Ibrahim A1 Khayyam ‘ (as recorded in the Testament of Nizam ul Mulk, and cited thence in Mirkhond’s History of the Assassins,* in Khondemir’s Habib us-Siyar, and in the Dabistan*) have intruded upon the prefatory excursions of almost every author, poet, or translator that has published any book or article having these quatrains 1. The European forms of our author's name vary in accordance with his translators' and historians' nationalities and tastes in transliteration. In English works and catalogues alone we get the variations Omar Khayyam. Omar-i-Khayyim. " and Omar al Khayyam. Mons. Nicolas, in his note on p. 2, says : His real name was Omar, but being constrained to follow the oriental custom which requires every poet to assume a surname (takhallus). he preserved the— name which indicated the profession of his fother, and his own. i.t,, Khayyam ' tent maker {vidt note x to q. 22, post; vidi also p. xl.). The Persians say that it was the extreme modesty of Omar that prevented his taking a more brilliant surname. like that of Firdausi (« the Celesti^) ; Sa'di (» the Happy) ; Anwarl (> the Luminous) ; Hafix '* (» the Pr^rver)." Prof. Cowell favours me with the following observations : The Atash Kadah calls him ' Khayyam.' adding (and Persian authors generally do so) *and they call him 'Omar' ^). Still, the Persian preface * of the Calcutta MS. has Omar Khayyam ' like us Europeans. Sprenger in his Catalogue calls him * Omar Khayykm,' and so does Dr. Rieu in his British * Museum Catalogue. Omar Khayyam ' has therefore (as you see) plenty of authority for it. * Omar al Khayyam.' as far as I can see, has none." 2. Muhammad ibn Khavand Shah Mir Khwand. '* History of the Early Kings of Persia." translated by D. Shea. London. 1832. (Oriental Translation Fund.) 3. The Dabistan is a treatise upon religious sects, the author of which is not named, but which is supposed to ha>*e been written by one Mulla Mubad. A translation by D. Shea and A. Troyer was issued in 1843 by the Oriental Translation Fund. b Digitized by Google ; II Intri-duiiiom (o> ihrniiT. Hroadly tprdking, the&c may be said to include the »to»y ol the tripartite at^eement for th«r mutual ad^-an- ta(e of Omar Kha>’>im with Kizim ul Mulk and Hasan ibn Sabah ; hit refcwm of the cadendar ; the critical exordium of Shlhraatlni ; the story of his apparition to his mother and the one about his tomb related by his pupil, Kizami of Saniarcand. It may be further observed that recent criticism has cast grave doubts upon the authenticity of these details. In like manner, since the death of Mr. FitzGerald, we may apply the same observation to the biographical details of his life, which have been sifted from his own charming letters, or strained from the mass of magazine literature that has appeared during the intervening periods, to appear as integral portions of introductions, ever increasing in bulk and weight. As it is improbable that this work will reach the hands of, or at any rate be seriously studied by, anyone who has not read Edward FitzGerald’s own prefece to his poem, and as it b un- likely that any student will read this volume unless hb interest in that poem has been sufficient to have caused him to read the “ Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald,” I will allow myself to preserve a discreet silence upon these points, and will not burden my introduction with stories that are already wearisomely bmiliar to my readers. I would refer those who desire to study the magazine literature of the subject to the articles of Mr. Gosse (Fortnightly Kevizw, July, i88g), Mr. Croome (Blachwood'i Magazine, November, i88g), Mr. Clodd (Fngliih IllustraUd Magazine, February, 1894), and Mr. Schtitz- Wiison (Contem(n>rary Review, March, 1876). For the rest, the enquirer is referred to the Bibliographical Appendb and to Poole’s Index of Periodical Literature. There remains at our disposal the story ot how the first edition of FitzGerald’s [loem fell from grace to the penny box, and rose thence to twenty guineas per copy—and an honoured anecdutuge. For the details of this progression the reader is referred to the introduction to Mr. j. H. McCarthy’s pnose i i I Digitized by Google’ 2 ; Introduction iii version, which is, as far as my studies have taken me, the most scholarly, the most enthusiastic, and the most graceful essay upon these more than triturated themes that has yet seen the light. (Vide Terminal Essay, p. 297.) Of critical essays upon FitzGerald’s poem, probably the best is that of Mr. Keene (Macmillan's Magazine, November, 1887), though it will pre- sently be seen that I disagree with the views he has expressed and of essays ex cathedrd—that is to say, written by oriental scholars, since the fundamental essay of Professor Cowell (Calcutta Review, March, 1858) nothing has surpassed that of Professor Pickering (National Review, December, 1890). Apart, however, from the anecdotal history of this collec- tion of quatrains, and of the matchless poem which they inspired, there is a chapter of history worthy our careful con- sideration—the chapter containing the history of the period ex- tending from about a.d. 1050-60, within which limits the birth of Omar Khayyam has by consent of his historiographers been fixed, until the year 1123 (a.h. 517), when his death is recorded upon more or less contemporaneous authority. Within this period our p>oet-mathematician lived, and from the events of that period—events which were stirring Islam to the foundation of its faith—came influences which may have tinged the philosophy preached by the singer. The internal evidence of the collection negatives the idea that the quatrains were written at one time as components of a consecutive whole, and suggests that they were written at intervals extending over the whole period ot Omar’s life, and collected, generally into the consecutive- alphabetical, or familiar dlwan form, at the end of his life, or, as is more probable, after his death. In point of fact, I think it not unlikely that most of his quatrains were transmitted as traditional epigrams, and collected at the instance of later poets such as Hafiz or Jam!, or his pupil Nizami, many of whose recollections of Omar’s quatrains, strongly imbued with the proclivities of their recorders, have passed into currency as the ipsissima verba of Omar, among the voluminous col- b— Digitized by Coogle IV Introduction lections of quatrains which, during five centuries, have been brought together and issued from time to time as his work. It is reasonable to assume that passing events had little or no influence up>on Omar and his work until, at earliest, A.D. 1076, when the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks led to that protracted convulsion of the Muhammadan world whose opening phase was the First Crusade.' The Sultan Toghrul Beg had been succeeded in 1063 by Alp Arslan, who extended his dominion from the Mediterranean Sea to Central Asia, and, being assassinated on Christmas Day, 1072, was succeeded by his son Malik Shah, the patron and protector of Omar Khayyam.