Antique 1800s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Poetry Book with Edward FitzGerald Translation, Vintage Victorian Oriental Middle East Literature

$44USD

Antique 1800s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Poetry Book with Edward FitzGerald Translation, Vintage Victorian Period Oriental Middle East Literature, Mystical Sufi Muslim classic Literature, Medieval Islamic Theosophical Philosophy, Old Illustrated Book in Hardcover Edition and Art Nouveau Style Graphic Design, Old Used Book for Collectors or Home Decor

Dimensions: 7.75” inches height, 5.25” width / Weight: 400 grams / All measures are an approximation

Used book with 100+ years old. Slight discoloration/fading and worn edges/corners. Decent shape, readable and will survive long time if it is well kept. 

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام‎, translit. Robāʿiāt-e ʿOmar Khayyām‎) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and numbering about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A ruba'i (Persian: رباعی‎, translit. rubāʿī‎, derived from Arabic root rubāʿī (رباعي), "consisting of four, quadripartite, fourfold") is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistichs) per line, hence the word rubayot, meaning "quatrains". The nature of a translation of a literary work like the Rubaiyat, very much depends on what interpretation one places on Khayyam's philosophy. The fact that the rubaiyat is a collection of quatrains—and may be selected and rearranged subjectively to support one interpretation or another—has led to widely differing versions. Nicolas took the view that Khayyam himself clearly was a Sufi. Others have seen signs of mysticism, even atheism, or conversely devout and orthodox Islam. FitzGerald gave the Rubaiyat both a teleological and distinctly fatalistic spin, although it has been claimed that he softened the impact of Khayyam's nihilism and his preoccupation with the mortality and transience of all things. Even such a question as to whether Khayyam was pro- or anti-alcohol gives rise to more discussion than might at first glance have seemed plausible.