The Wisdom of Omar Khayyam

The Wisdom of Omar Khayyam (The Wisdom Series)

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Khirad wisdom is the type of wisdom that brings about a rapprochement between the poetic and discursive modes of thought, one that sees the fundamental irony in what appears to be a senseless human existence within an orderly and complex physical universe. For Khayyam the mathematician-astronomer, the universe cannot be the result of a random chance; on the other hand, Khayyam the poet fails to find any purpose for human existence in this orderly universe. As Spring and Fall make their appointed turn, The leaves of life one aft another turn; Drink wine and brood not—as the Sage has said: Some of his mathematics relates in passing to philosophical matters in particular, reasoning from postulates and definitions , but his most significant work deals with issues internal to mathematics and in particular the boundary between geometry and algebra.

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Khayyam seems to have been attracted to cubic equations originally through his consideration of the following geometric problem: Solving algebraic problems using geometric tools was not new; in the case of quadratic equations methods like this date back at least as far as the Greeks and probably to the Babylonians. Since negative numbers had not yet been conceived, Muslim mathematicians needed to solve several different types of quadratic equations: For cubics, there are fourteen distinction types of equation to be solved.

In the Algebra , Khayyam sets out to deal systematically with all fourteen types of cubic equations. He solves each one in sequence again through the use of intersecting conic sections. In an algebra where powers of x corresponded to geometrical dimensions, the solution of cubic equations was the apex of the discipline. Nevertheless, even here Khayyam was able to advance algebra by considering its unknowns as dimension-free abstractions of continuous quantities. Although he does not handle this topic perfectly, his effort nevertheless stood out from previous efforts.

A geometric solution to a cubic equation may seem peculiar to modern eyes, but the study of cubic equations and indeed much of medieval algebra was motivated by geometric problems. Khayyam was nevertheless explicitly aware that the arithmetic problem of the cubic remained to be solved. He never produced such a solution; nor did anyone else until Gerolamo Cardano in the mid th century.

The process of reasoning from postulates and definitions has been basic to mathematics at least since the time of Euclid. Islamic geometers were well versed in this art, but also spent some effort examining the logical foundations of the method. This statement is equivalent to several more easily understood assertions, such as: It has been known since the 19 th century that there are non-Euclidean geometries that violate these properties; indeed, it is not yet known whether the space in which we live satisfies them.

Rather, he replaces it with two statements, which he attributes to Aristotle, that are both simpler and more self-evident: Khayyam believed his approach to be an improvement on that of his predecessor Ibn al-Haytham because his method does not rely on the concept of motion, which should be excluded from geometry. Book II of Explanation of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid takes up the question of the proper definition of ratio. This is an obscure topic to the modern reader, but it was fundamental to Greek and medieval mathematics.

The Wisdom of Omar Khayyam

If the quantities joined in a ratio are whole numbers, then the definition of their ratio poses no difficulty. If the quantities are geometric magnitudes, the situation is more complex because the two line segments might be incommensurable in modern terms, their ratio corresponds to an irrational number. There is little wonder that Khayyam and others were unhappy with this definition, for while it is clearly true, it does not get at the heart of what it means for ratios to be equal.

The Euclidean algorithm is an iterative process that is used to find the greatest common divisor of a pair of numbers. It may be applied equally well to find the greatest common measure of two geometric magnitudes, but the algorithm will never terminate if the ratio between the two magnitudes is irrational.

Part of the explanation might be simply that the Euclidean algorithm applied to geometric quantities was much more familiar to medieval mathematicians than to us. Thus Islamic mathematicians could continue to use ratio theorems from the Elements without having to prove them again according to the anthyphairetic definition. During this process he sets an arbitrary fixed magnitude to serve as a unit, to which he relates all other magnitudes of the same kind. This allows Khayyam to incorporate both numbers and geometric magnitudes within the same system.

This step was one of the most significant changes of conception to occur between ancient Greek and modern mathematics. We know that Khayyam wrote a treatise, now lost, called Problems of Arithmetic involving the determination of n -th roots Youschkevitch and Rosenfeld In his Algebra Khayyam writes that methods for calculating square and cube roots come from India, and that he has extended them to the determination of roots of any order. Khayyam moved to Isfahan in to help establish a new observatory under the patronage of Malikshah, the Seljuk sultan, and his vizier, Nizam al-Mulk.

Several treatises on other scientific topics are also attributed to Khayyam: All of his texts seem to have been taken seriously. It was not until the 19 th century, however, that the Western world and literary circles discovered Umar Khayyam in all his richness. Amazed by their profundity, he shared them with Edward FitzGerald, who took an immediate interest and published the first edition of his own translation in Rossetti shared with Edward FitzGerald and their mutual admiration of Khayyam cannot be ignored.

The movement also drew the attention of T. For Khayyam, there are two discourses, each of which pertains to one dimension of human existence: Philosophically, Khayyam was the last Peripatetic in the Persian speaking world before philosophical thinking eclipsed the Eastern part of the Islamic world for several centuries. Khayyam defended rationalism against the rise of orthodoxy and made an attempt to revive the spirit of rationalism which was so prevalent in the first four centuries in Islam.

Poetically, Khayyam represents a voice of protest against what he regards to be a fundamentally unjust world. Many people found in him a voice they needed to hear, and centuries after he had died his works became a venue for those who were experiencing the same trials and tribulations as Khayyam had.

Al-Farabi Arabic and Islamic Philosophy, special topics in: Of knowledge naught remained I did not know, Of secrets, scarcely any, high or low; All day and night for three score and twelve years, I pondered, just to learn that naught I know. The Formative Period 2. Khayyam the Mathematician and Scientist 4. Khayyam in the West 5. The Philosophical Works and Thoughts of Umar Khayyam Khayyam wrote little, but his works—some fourteen treatises identified to date—were remarkable.

His philosophical works which have been edited and published recently are: While these are standard Aristotelian questions, for Khayyam they have a wider range of philosophical implications, especially with regard to the following topics: The existence of God, His attributes and knowledge Gradation of being and the problem of multiplicity Eschatology Theodicy Determinism and free will Subjects and predicates Existence and essence 2. Khayyam expresses this when he says: A summary of his reasons is as follows: Existence cannot be added to essence; otherwise an infinite succession will follow.

Existence is not added to essence; otherwise essence should have existed prior to existence, and this is absurd. With regard to the Necessary Being, existence clearly is not added to essence, for dualism would follow. The salient feature of his critique address the following: Impermanence and the quest for the meaning of life Theodicy The here and now Epistemology Eschatology Determinism and free will Philosophical wisdom 3.

On theodicy, Khayyam remarks: On this Khayyam asserts: And also What matters if I feast, or have to fast?

Umar Khayyam (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Whinfield , The inconsistency between a seemingly senseless existence and a complex and orderly world leads to existential and philosophical doubt and bewilderment. Quaritch, 1 st edition ; 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th , 5 th , posthumous. Whinfield, ; republished , London: Dissertation, University of Michigan.

Youschkevitch, , Omar Khaiiam , Moscow: MacDonnell and Alan Gribben eds. Academic Tools How to cite this entry. Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database. Open access to the SEP is made possible by a world-wide funding initiative. Mirror Sites View this site from another server: 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. The number of quatrains attributed to him in more recent collections varies from about 1, according to Saeed Nafisi to more than 2, Skeptical scholars point out that the entire tradition may be pseudepigraphic. In the s, Iranian scholars, notably Mohammad-Ali Foroughi , attempted to reconstruct a core of authentic verses from scattered quotes by authors of the 13th and 14th centuries, ignoring the younger manuscript tradition.

After World War II, reconstruction efforts were significantly delayed by two clever forgeries. De Blois is pessimistic, suggesting that contemporary scholarship has not advanced beyond the situation of the s, when Hans Heinrich Schaeder commented that the name of Omar Khayyam "is to be struck out from the history of Persian literature".

A feature of the more recent collections is the lack of linguistic homogeneity and continuity of ideas. Sadegh Hedayat commented that "if a man had lived for a hundred years and had changed his religion, philosophy, and beliefs twice a day, he could scarcely have given expression to such a range of ideas". FitzGerald's source were transcripts sent to him in — by his friend and teacher Edward B. Cowell of two manuscripts, a Bodleian manuscript with quatrains, [8] and a "Calcutta manuscript".

FitzGerald completed his first draft in and sent it to Fraser's Magazine in January He made a revised draft in January , of which he privately printed copies. This first edition became extremely sought-after by the s, when "more than two million copies ha[d] been sold in two hundred editions". The extreme popularity of FitzGerald's work led to a prolonged debate on the correct interpretation of the philosophy behind the poems. FitzGerald emphasized the religious skepticism he found in Omar Khayyam. He also mentions that Khayyam was indicted for impiety and went on a pilgrimage to avoid punishment.

Thus, the view of Omar Khayyam as a Sufi was defended by Bjerregaard Idries Shah similarly says that FitzGerald misunderstood Omar's poetry. The Sufi interpretation is the view of a minority of scholars. FitzGerald's "skepticist" reading of the poetry is still defended by modern scholars.

Sadegh Hedayat The Blind Owl was the most notable modern proponent of Khayyam's philosophy as agnostic skepticism. In his introductory essay to his second edition of the Quatrains of the Philosopher Omar Khayyam , Hedayat states that "while Khayyam believes in the transmutation and transformation of the human body, he does not believe in a separate soul; if we are lucky, our bodily particles would be used in the making of a jug of wine". In his later work Khayyam's Quatrains , , Hedayat further maintains that Khayyam's usage of Sufic terminology such as "wine" is literal, and that "Khayyam took refuge in wine to ward off bitterness and to blunt the cutting edge of his thoughts.

Of the five editions published, four were published under the authorial control of FitzGerald. The fifth edition, which contained only minor changes from the fourth, was edited posthumously after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions FitzGerald had left.

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Numerous later editions were published after , notably an edition with illustrations by Willy Pogany , first published in George G. It was issued in numerous revised editions. A bibliography of editions compiled in listed more than separate editions. Notable editions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries include: Batson, and a biographical introduction by E. Ross; Little, Brown, and Company , with the versions of E. Sully and Kleinteich Critical editions have been published by Decker [21] and by Arberry FitzGerald's translation is rhyming and metrical, and rather free.

Selections from the Rubaiyat

Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to his source material at all. My translation will interest you from its form, and also in many respects in its detail: Many quatrains are mashed together: I suppose very few People have ever taken such Pains in Translation as I have: But at all Cost, a Thing must live: Better a live Sparrow than a stuffed Eagle. For comparison, here are two versions of the same quatrain by FitzGerald, from the and editions:.

This quatrain has a close correspondence in two of the quatrains in the Bodleian Library ms. In the literal prose translation of Edward Heron-Allen I desire a little ruby wine and a book of verses, Just enough to keep me alive, and half a loaf is needful; And then, that I and thou should sit in a desolate place Is better than the kingdom of a sultan. If a loaf of wheaten-bread be forthcoming, a gourd of wine, and a thigh-bone of mutton, and then, if thou and I be sitting in the wilderness, — that would be a joy to which no sultan can set bounds.

Multilingual edition, published in by Tahrir Iran Co. Two English editions by Edward Henry Whinfield — consisted of quatrains in and in This translation was fully revised and some cases fully translated anew by Ali Salami and published by Mehrandish Books. Whinfield's translation is, if possible, even more free than FitzGerald's; Quatrain 84 equivalent of FitzGerald's quatrain XI in his 1st edition, as above reads:.

In the sweet spring a grassy bank I sought And thither wine and a fair Houri brought; And, though the people called me graceless dog, Gave not to Paradise another thought! John Leslie Garner published an English translation of quatrains in His was also a free, rhyming translation.

Justin Huntly McCarthy — Member of Parliament for Newry published prose translations of quatrains in In Spring time I love to sit in the meadow with a paramour perfect as a Houri and goodly jar of wine, and though I may be blamed for this, yet hold me lower than a dog if ever I dream of Paradise. Richard Le Gallienne — produced a verse translation, subtitled "a paraphrase from several literal translations", in In his introductory note to the reader, Le Gallienne cites McCarthy 's "charming prose" as the chief influence on his version.

Some example quatrains follow:. Look not above, there is no answer there; Pray not, for no one listens to your prayer; Near is as near to God as any Far, And Here is just the same deceit as There.

God gave the secret, and denied it me? Give thanks to Him who foreordained it thus— Surely He loves to hear the glasses clink! Edward Heron-Allen — published a prose translation in He also wrote an introduction to an edition of Frederick Rolfe Baron Corvo 's translation into English of Nicolas's French translation. The English novelist and orientalist Jessie Cadell — consulted various manuscripts of the Rubaiyat with the intention of producing an authoritative edition. Her translation of quatrains was published posthumously in Arberry in attempted a scholarly edition of Khayyam, based on thirteenth-century manuscripts.

However, his manuscripts were subsequently exposed as twentieth-century forgeries. The authors claimed it was based on a twelfth-century manuscript located in Afghanistan, where it was allegedly utilized as a Sufi teaching document. But the manuscript was never produced, and British experts in Persian literature were easily able to prove that the translation was in fact based on Edward Heron Allen's analysis of possible sources for FitzGerald's work.

Should our day's portion be one mancel loaf, A haunch of mutton and a gourd of wine Set for us two alone on the wide plain, No Sultan's bounty could evoke such joy. A gourd of red wine and a sheaf of poems — A bare subsistence, half a loaf, not more — Supplied us two alone in the free desert: What Sultan could we envy on his throne? Bowen is also credited as being one of the first scholars to question Robert Graves' and Omar Ali-Shah's translation of the Rubaiyat. A modern version of quatrains, claiming to be "as literal an English version of the Persian originals as readability and intelligibility permit", was published in by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs.

Their edition provides two versions of the thematic quatrain, the first 98 considered by the Persian writer Sadeq Hedayat to be a spurious attribution. I need a jug of wine and a book of poetry, Half a loaf for a bite to eat, Then you and I, seated in a deserted spot, Will have more wealth than a Sultan's realm. If chance supplied a loaf of white bread, Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton, In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl, There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo. In , the Rubaiyat was translated by a Persian for the first time.

The Wine of Nishapour is the collection of Khayyam's poetry by Shahrokh Golestan, including Golestan's pictures in front of each poem. In spring if a houri-like sweetheart Gives me a cup of wine on the edge of a green cornfield, Though to the vulgar this would be blasphemy, If I mentioned any other Paradise, I'd be worse than a dog. In Ahmad Saidi — produced an English translation of quatrains grouped into 10 themes.

Born and raised in Iran, Saidi went to the United States in and attended college there. He served as the head of the Persian Publication Desk at the U.

His quatrains include the original Persian verses for reference alongside his English translations. His focus was to faithfully convey, with less poetic license, Khayyam's original religious, mystical, and historic Persian themes, through the verses as well as his extensive annotations. Two example quatrains follow:. Ah, would there were a loaf of bread as fare, A joint of lamb, a jug of vintage rare, And you and I in wilderness encamped— No Sultan's pleasure could with ours compare.

The sphere upon which mortals come and go, Has no end nor beginning that we know; And none there is to tell us in plain truth: Whence do we come and whither do we go. Adolf Friedrich von Schack — published a German translation in Friedrich Martinus von Bodenstedt — published a German translation in

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