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Secondary sourceBook1878

Title Page of the First American Rubáiyát

Omar Khayyám (author), Edward FitzGerald (translator) · 1878

The title page of the 1878 first American edition of Edward FitzGerald's famous English translation of Khayyám's Rubáiyát.

This title page represents the famous English translation that spread Khayyám's poetry worldwide.

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Title page of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, printed in black with a red border. Text reads: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the astronomer-poet of Persia, rendered into English verse, first American from the third London edition. Below is a publisher's monogram with 'AND CO.' and the imprint Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1878.
Title page, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, first American edition. Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1878. Houghton Library, Harvard University.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of the first American edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, published in Boston in 1878 by Houghton, Osgood and Company. It presents Edward FitzGerald's English translation of the Persian quatrains attributed to Khayyám, based on the third London edition. The page is held at Harvard University's Houghton Library.

Why it matters

FitzGerald's translation made Omar Khayyám's poetry famous across the English-speaking world in the 19th century. This American printing shows how far and fast that fame spread, carrying Khayyám's name — and a particular, poetic version of his ideas about time, fate, and pleasure — to new readers far from Persia.

Look closer

  • Why do you think the title page describes Khayyám as 'the astronomer-poet of Persia'?
  • What does the printing information (publisher, press, date) tell us about how books traveled in the 1800s?
  • How might FitzGerald's translation differ from Khayyám's original Persian words?

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.

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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

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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

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Jameh Mosque of Isfahan

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

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