Skip to main content

Secondary sourceBook1897

Rubáiyyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer Poet of Persia

Omar Khayyám (translated by Edward FitzGerald, illustrated by William Brown MacDougall) · 1897

An illustrated 1898 English edition of Khayyám's quatrains, based on Edward FitzGerald's translation, showing how his poetry reached Western readers.

This illustrated English translation shows how Khayyám's poetry spread to Western readers long after his death.

Ask Omar Khayyam about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Printed page from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with a decorative black-and-cream botanical border of stylized flower heads and swirling leaves. Inside the border are stanzas XXVII and XXVIII in verse, ending with the line about coming like water and going like wind.
Rubáiyyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer Poet of Persia, translated by Edward FitzGerald, illustrated by William Brown MacDougall. London and New York: Macmillan, 1898.

About this source

What it is

This is an 1898 printed book containing Edward FitzGerald's English translation of Omar Khayyám's quatrains, illustrated by William Brown MacDougall and published by Macmillan in London and New York.

Why it matters

FitzGerald's translation made Khayyám's poetry widely known in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century, though it reshaped the original Persian verses considerably. This edition, with its decorative illustrations, shows how Victorian readers encountered and visually imagined Khayyám's ideas about time, mortality, and pleasure.

Look closer

  • Compare the illustrated page's decoration with the words of the poem—how do they work together?
  • Why might a translator's version of a poem become more famous in some countries than the original?
  • What does the phrase about coming 'like water' and going 'like wind' suggest about the poem's themes?

This book 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.

More Omar Khayyam sources

Meet the AI Omar Khayyam →
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)

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Omar Khayyam now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions