Writing to his brother from prison in 1949, a young African American man opens his letter citing these lines from a medieval Persian poet:

Indeed the Idols I have loved so long,

Have done my credit in this World much Wrong:

Have dropped my Glory in a shallow Cup,

And sold my Reputation for a song

The writer would later achieve acclaim as the civil rights activist Malcolm X, and the lines he was citing were by Omar Khayyam, the subject of today’s episode.

Q1. Omar Khayyam was born in 1048CE in Nishapur, Iran. The Abbasid caliph in Baghdad was al-Qāʾim which was witnessing a so-called Sunni Revival with the ousting of the Caspian Zaydi Shia Buyid de facto control of the caliphate by the Turkic Sunni Seljuks in 1055CE. The Cold War with the rival Ismaili ShiaFatimid caliphate of Cairo was still at its height. Tell us more about the world of Omar Khayyam.

Q2. He had an exemplary education becoming an authority in mathematics. He was employed as a head astronomer by the Seljuk regime and after the death of Sultan Malik-Shah, Omar Khayyam made hajj seemingly to allay suspicions about his own religious alignment. What else do we know about his life?

Q3. Omar Khayyam is known in English through the popular Victorian translation by Edward Fitzgerald. But is it misleading to limit our knowledge of him to these series of translated quatrains.

Q4. Omar Khayyam dies in 1131 aged 83 in his hometown. What has been his legacy, influence and genealogy?

Q5. And finally before we end, please share with us a sample of Omar Khayyam’s work in the original Persian with the translation.

Further reading:
The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam — Mehdi Aminrazavi (original translations with an appendix dedicated to the Fitzgerald translations)

Ali Hammoud:
https://x.com/AliHammoud7777
https://alihammoud7.substack.com/

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