Cultural Blog on Omar Khayyam

[Laura Major]

One book that I absolutely love is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which is a collection of translated poems by Omar Khayyam (or longer name: Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nishapuri al-Khayyami...quite a handful) from Iran. Mr. Khayyam was a brilliant mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and much much more. This collection of poems is amazing as it talks about his philosophy on life mostly involving the afterlife and lots of wine drinking. In one section he talks about a potter molding a pitcher out of clay but he describes the potter molding the clay of a young girl who has the hand of a king around her neck. I'm not sure if he was implying that the potter was a king in another lifetime and was straggling the girl who is now part of the earth that "the potter" is molding. Or possible it could just describe the handle on the pitcher as the kings hand and the pitcher itself as a girl. It is an amazing piece nonetheless as it talks about Khayyam's views on religion and the afterlife. Persian poetry plays a great role in Persian literature with the importance of philosophy.