The poems attributed to Omar Khayyam have a universal and timeless philosophical theme: life is a meaningful journey even if brief and uncertain. They inspire an unconstrained free-thinking mindset and a wise realization that guides thinking persons: it is impossible to see the absolute truth, as the universe has its own reality that remains largely hidden, and that one must think and act accordingly. This book presents a selection of Khayyam's poems in their original Persian language along with their English translations in a faithful and modern version. By relying only on the original Persian version of Khayyam's poems, and using the author's own body of literary and linguistic knowledge, this book presents a modern translation of Omar Khayyam's poems since Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat in 1859.

Khayyam has been the subject of speculation on the part of literary critics ever since Edward Fitzgerald published his own version of the Rubaiyat in 1859. This edition represented the first opportunity to study in English the work of Khayyam by a Persian scholar. There is no conclusive evidence to prove which of the many quatrains attributed to Khayyam are authentic. Ali Dashti therefore constructs a likeness of the poet from references found in the works of writers of his day or immediately after, and from Khayyam’s own works on philosophy, mathematics and astronomy, of which the authenticity is not questioned. Khayyam emerges as a widely read and broad-minded scholar, immersed in his own studies, cautious and moderate, averse to committing himself on controversial questions. Using this portrait Dashti draws up a list of some hundred quatrains which are in keeping with Khayyam’s character. Selling point: An elegant and accurate translation which throws light on the nature of Khayyam’s religious and philosophical beliefs.

Omar Khayyam’s Secret: Hermeneutics of the Robaiyat in Quantum Sociological Imagination is a twelve-book series of which this book is the second volume, subtitled Khayyami Millennium: Reporting the Discovery and the Reconfirmation of the True Dates of Birth and Passing of Omar Khayyam (AD 1021-1123). Each book is independently readable, although it will be best understood as a part of the whole series. In the overall series, the transdisciplinary sociologist Mohammad H. Tamdgidi shares the results of his decades-long research on Omar Khayyam, the enigmatic 11th/12th centuries Persian Muslim sage, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, physician, writer, and poet from Neyshabour, Iran, whose life and works still remain behind a veil of deep mystery. Tamdgidi’s purpose has been to find definitive answers to the many puzzles still surrounding Khayyam, especially regarding the existence, nature, and purpose of the Robaiyat in his life and works. To explore the questions posed, he advances a new hermeneutic method of textual analysis, informed by what he calls the quantum sociological imagination, to gather and study all the attributed philosophical, religious, scientific, and literary writings of Khayyam. In this second book of the series, Tamdgidi lays down an essential foundation for the series by revisiting the unresolved questions surrounding the dates of birth and passing of Omar Khayyam. Critically reexamining the manner in which Omar Khayyam’s birth horoscope as reported in Zahireddin Abolhassan Beyhaqi’s Tatemmat Sewan al-Hekmat (Supplement to the Chest of Wisdom) was used by Swāmi Govinda Tīrtha in his The Nectar of Grace: Omar Khayyam’s Life and Works (1941) to determine Khayyam’s birth date, Tamdgidi uncovers a number of serious internal inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies that prevented Tīrtha (and, since then, other scholars more or less taking for granted his results) from arriving at a reliable date for Khayyam’s birth, hurling Khayyami studies into decades of confusion regarding Khayyam’s life and works. Tamdgidi then shares in the book the detailed account of his own discovery of Khayyam’s true date of birth for the first time, a finding that eluded Khayyami studies for centuries and is bound to revolutionize the studies for decades to come. Tamdgidi then turns his attention to the task of definitively establishing the true date of passing of Omar Khayyam. Conducting an in-depth, superposed analysis of Beyhaqi’s Tatemmat Sewan el-Hekmat (Supplement to the Chest of Wisdom), Abdorrahman Khazeni’s Mizan ol-Hekmat (Balance of Wisdom), Nezami Arouzi’s Chahar Maqaleh (Four Discourses), and Yar Ahmad Rashidi Tabrizi’s Tarabkhaneh (House of Joy), amid other relevant texts, he succeeds in firmly reconfirming and further discovering, in a textually reliable way, not only the year, the season, the month, and the day, but even the most likely time of day at which the poet mathematician, astronomer, and calender reformer died as a solar centenarian, completing his 102nd solar year age. Strange is that these discoveries are made just in time as we approach the first solar millennium of Omar Khayyam’s birth date on June 10, 1021, at sunrise of Neyshabour, Iran, and the ninth solar centennial of his passing on June 10, 1123, on the eve also of his birthday, closing the circle of his life’s “coming and going.” CONTENTS About OKCIR—i Published to Date in the Series—ii About this Book—iv About the Author—viii Notes on Transliteration—xix Acknowledgments—xxi Preface to Book 2: Recap From Prior Book of the Series—1 Introduction to Book 2: The Dilemma and Significance of Omar Khayyam’s Dates of Birth and Passing—11 CHAPTER I—Contributions, Inconsistencies, and Inaccuracies of Swāmī Govinda Tīrtha’s Findings Regarding Omar Khayyam’s Dates of Birth and Passing —27 CHAPTER II—In Search of the Correct Gemini Degree: The Story of How Omar Khayyam’s True Date of Birth Was Discovered Shortly Before Its Imminent Millennium—63 CHAPTER III—In Search of Omar Khayyam’s True Date of Passing: Superposing the Birth Date Findings With Beyhaqi’s “Tatemmat Sewan el-Hekmat” And Khazeni’s “Mizan ol-Hekmat”—133 CHAPTER IV—Searching More for Omar Khayyam’s True Date of Passing: Superposing the Birth Date Findings With Present and Older Manuscript Copies of Nezami Arouzi’s “Chahar Maqaleh”—171 CHAPTER V—Omar Khayyam’s True Date of Passing Discovered and Reconfirmed: Superposing the Birth Date Findings With All “Tarabkhaneh,” “Chahar Maqaleh,” And “Tatemmat Sewan el-Hekmat” Accounts—201 Conclusion to Book 2: Summary of Findings—255 Appendix: Transliteration System and Book 2 Glossary—267 Book 2 Cumulative Glossary of Transliterations—280 Book 2 References—287 Book 2 Index—291

Omar Khayyam (11th-12th centuries CE), a celebrated polymath, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher is best known as a Persian poet and author of the RubÄ â ~iyÄ t, but his validity as a poet is highly debated. To address this, this book focuses on 100 quatrains that have been authenticated by three known Persian authorities. To bring out Khayyamâ (TM)s voice, inner feelings and thoughts, this unique bilingual volume provides the Persian originals side-by-side with their literal translations in English. This serves to bring the reader closer to the originals, and allows them to make connections and draw conclusions according to their time and place in life.