d NOTICE. H. S. Nichols, Ltd., respectfully beg to call 2 attention of purchasers to the fact that all Books ued by them are intended to be sold at the net ,'ertised prices without deduction, and that they supplied to Booksellers on terms which will not >w of an}- discount being given bv them to the >lic. &%V&r THE RUBA'IYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM OF THIS EDITION 2 Copies have been printed on Vellum 20 „ „ „ Large Paper 1000 ,, ,, ., Small „ . it g£5S 3 «t OMAR KHAYYAM I A FAC S I M I L E-OFTH EMS jj | m INTHE- P3ODLE IAN- LI B RARY-VJ ^> TRANSLATEDAND-EDITED« |™ard-heronalleml 1 LON DON 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, BY EDWARD HERON-ALLEN LONDON H. S. NICHOLS LTD. 39 CHARING CROSS ROAD W.C. MDCCCXCVIll COPYRIGHTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES, 1897 Lfer Ost3rH PRINTED BY H, S. NICHOLS, LTD., 39 CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON, W.C. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introduction i —xlii English translation i Photographic facsimile of MS. 29 Bibliographical references, for abbreviations in the notes .---•-•-- 115 Facsimile pages with transcript, translation, and notes 119 Bibliography of Omar Khayyam • • • 281 ' INTRODUCTION 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 Fath 'Omar bin Ibrahim Al Khayyam (as recorded in the Testament of Nizam ul Mulk, and cited thence in Mirkhond's History of the Assassins, 2 in Khondemir's 3 4 Habib us-Siyar, and in the Dabistan ) have intruded upon the 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 KhayySm, Omar-i-Khayyam, 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 father, and his own, i.e., Khayyam ' tent maker (vidi note 1 to q. 22, post; vide 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 Celestial) ; Sa'di (= the Happy) ; Anwari (= the Luminous) ; Hafiz ( = the Preserver)." 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' (jjj»S y*£> »JE> »). Still, the Persian preface ' ' of the Calcutta MS. has Omar Khayyam like us Europeans. Sprenger in his Catalogue calls him ' Omar Khayyam,' 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. Ghias ud-din Khwand Amir's Habib us Siyar. It was translated by F. Gladwin under the title "An Account of the Philosophers from the Khulasat al Akhbar of . Khandamir." London, 1785. 4. The Dabistan is a collection of historical memoirs, the author of which is not named, but which is supposed to have been written by one Mulla Mubad. A translation by D. Shea and A. Troyer was issued in 1843 by the Oriental Translation Fund. b ; ii Introduction prefatory excursions of almost every author, poet, or translator that has published any book or article having these quatrains for theme. Broadly speaking, these may be said to include the story of the tripartite agreement for their mutual advan- tage of Omar Khayyam with Nizam ul Mulk and Hasan ibn Sabah ; his reform of the calendar ; the critical exordium of Shahrastani ; the story of his apparition to his mother and the one about his tomb related by his pupil, Nizam! of Samarcand. 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 preface to his poem, and as it is un- likely that any student will read this volume unless his 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 familiar to my readers. I would refer those who desire to study the magazine literature of the subject to the articles of Mr. Gosse {Fortnightly Review, July, 1889), Mr. Groome {Blackwood's Magazine, November, 1889), Mr. Clodd (English Illustrated Magazine, February, 1894), and Mr. Schiitz- Wilson (Contemporary Review, March, 1876). For the rest, the enquirer is referred to the Bibliographical Appendix and to Poole's Index of Periodical Literature. There remains at our disposal the story ot how the first edition of Fitzgerald's poem fell from grace to the penny box, and rose thence to seven guineas per copy—and an honoured anecdotage. For the details of this progression the reader is Introduction iii referred to the introduction to Mr. J. H. McCarthy's prose 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. Of critical essays upon Fitzgerald's poem, probably the best is that of Mr. Keene (Macmillan's Magazine, November, 1887), though it will presently be seen that I disagree with the views he has expressed ; and of essays ex cathedra—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 poet-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 Nizaml, many of whose recollections of Omar's quatrains, strongly imbued with 5—2 IV Introduction the proclivities of their recorders, have passed into currency as the ipsissima verba of Omar, among the voluminous col- 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 upon 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. 1 The Sultan Toghrul had been succeeded in 1063 by Alp Arslan, who conquered Mahmoud the Great, Khalif of Baghdad, extended his dominion from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China, and being assassinated on Christmas Day, 1072, was succeeded by his son Malik Shah, the patron and protector of Omar Khayyam. No more perfect history of the era of Omar can be found than that contained in the Makamat (or "Assemblies") of El Hariri the silk merchant, who, born in Bussorah in 1054, and dying in 1122, wrote the book of which Professor Chenery (Professor of Arabic at Oxford) has left us a masterly translation. 2 The origin of this book was, we are told, his accidental meeting with one of the few survivors of the massacre of Seruj, when that city was attacked and destroyed by Baldwin, brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, in the year 1098, during the period when he ruled the Christian Principality of Edessa. 3 In 1084 the conquest of Asia Minor may be said to have been completed by the Turks, in 1088 began the series of persecutions of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem which led to the Crusades, and, in 1092, Malik Shah died, having, in addition to his territorial conquests, reformed the calendar by means of the labours of 1.