Omar Khayyam

The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

The authenticity of the poetry attributed to Omar Khayyam is highly uncertain. Khayyam was famous during his lifetime not as a poet but as an astronomer and mathematician. The earliest reference to his having written poetry is found in his biography by al-Isfahani, written 43 years after his death. This view is reinforced by other medieval historians such as Shahrazuri and Al-Qifti . Parts of the Rubaiyat appear as incidental quotations from Omar in early works of biography and in anthologies. These include works of Razi ca, Daya, Juvayni ca. and Jajarmi 434 Also, five quatrains assigned to Khayyam in somewhat later sources appear in Zahiri Samarqandi's Sindbad Nameh without attribution. The number of quatrains attributed to him in more recent collections varies from about 1,200 according to Saeed Nafisi to more than 2,000. Skeptical scholars point out that the entire tradition may be pseudepigraphic:11 The extant manuscripts containing collections attributed to Omar are dated much too late to enable a reconstruction of a body of authentic verses.