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Secondary sourcePhotograph1905

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Hanscom photograph)

Adelaide Hanscom Leeson · 1905

A pictorialist photograph by Adelaide Hanscom Leeson created for a 1905 illustrated edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

An illustration for a 1905 edition of Khayyam's poetry, showing its influence on early art photography.

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Sepia-toned photograph of a woman with long dark hair and a feathered or winged headdress, arms outstretched, wearing a sheer flowing gown against a misty, darkened background.
Adelaide Hanscom Leeson, illustration for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1905.

About this source

What it is

This is an artistic photograph by Adelaide Hanscom Leeson, made as an illustration for a 1905 edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the English translation of poems attributed to the Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam. It shows a woman with flowing hair and a feathered headdress in a soft, dreamlike setting, typical of the pictorialist photography style of the era.

Why it matters

By the early 1900s, Edward FitzGerald's translation of Khayyam's verses had become enormously popular in the English-speaking world, inspiring artists across many mediums. Hanscom's photographs show how far Khayyam's poetry traveled beyond its original Persian context, becoming part of a Western artistic movement that used photography to create romantic, painting-like images.

Look closer

  • What mood or feeling does this image try to create, and how?
  • Why do you think a translated poem inspired this kind of visual art decades after it was written?
  • What does this image leave out about who Omar Khayyam actually was?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Omar Khayyam on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Front cover of a green cloth book titled Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, with gold lettering, a gold floral emblem, black decorative arch border, and publisher Houghton, Osgood & Co. at the bottom.Book

Secondary source

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Edward FitzGerald · 1878

Manuscript page numbered 46 in Arabic script, with a geometric diagram of a rectangle with both diagonals drawn and lettered corners at the top of the page, above several lines of handwritten Arabic text in black ink on aged, yellowish paper.Document

Primary source

Khayyam Geometry Manuscript

Omar Khayyám

Book

Secondary source

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (First Edition)

Edward FitzGerald · 1859

Painted manuscript page in Persian miniature style: a seated bearded ruler in a crown gestures toward a woman in green kneeling on a rug, while a small attendant in a blue robe stands at a doorway on the left. Persian text fills the bottom panel.Book

Secondary source

Chahar Maqala

Nizami Aruzi · 1155–1157

Wide view of the central courtyard of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan under a blue sky with clouds. Tall iwans with ornate tiled and muqarnas vaulting frame the square, with a blue-tiled fountain pool in the foreground and a pair of minarets rising behind the central portal.Artifact

Secondary source

Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

841 (rebuilt 1086-1089 under Khayyám's patrons)

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