Scientist and Persian Poet ’Omar Khayyām

Abstract

This review article focuses on the work of Omar Khayyām of Neyšābur, the famous Persian sage, astronomer, astrologer, philosopher, mathematician, and poet. In the West, he is best known for his literary work, the Robā’iyyāt, thanks to Edward Fitzgerald’s translation in 1859 of these short quatrains of Persian origin, loaded with meaning and universality. Although Khayyām’s poetic production is scarce, the number of poems attributed to him has increased over time. Some relevant studies carried out in Iran on Khayyām and his robā’iyyāt are discussed in order to distinguish between the authentic and the apocryphal poems. We also analyze the translation of some Khayyām quatrains made by both Fitzgerald and other translators.