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See also: OMAR See also: IBN AL-KHATTAB, the second of the See also: Mahommedan caliphs (see See also: CALIPHATE, A, §§ 1 and 2)
.
Originally opposed to Mahomet, he became later one of the ablest advisers both of him and of the first See also: caliph, See also: Abu Bekr
.
His own reign (634–644) saw See also: Islam's transformation from a religious See also: sect to an imperial power
.
The chief events were the defeat of the Persians at Kadisiya (637) and the See also: conquest of See also: Syria and See also: Palestine
.
The conquest of See also: Egypt followed (see EGYPT and AMR IBN EL-Ass) and the final rout of the Persians at Nehawend 041) brought See also: Iran under Arab See also: rule
.
Omar was assassinated by a Persian slave in 644, and though he lingered several days after the attack, he appointed no successor, but only a See also: body of six Muhajirun who should select a new caliph
.
Omar was a wise and far-sighted ruler and rendered See also: great service to Islam
.
He is said to have built the so-called " Mosque of
.
Omar " (" the Dome of the See also: Rock ") in Jerusalem, which contains the rock regarded by Mahommedans as the scene of Mahomet's ascent to heaven, and by the Jews as that of the proposed sacrifice of Isaac
.
'OMAR KHAYYAM [in full, GHIYATHUDDIN ABULFATH 'OMAR See also: BIN See also: IBRAHIM AL-KHAYYAMI], the great Persian mathematician, astronomer, freethinker and epigrammatist, who derived the epithet Khayyam (the tentmaker) most likely from his See also: father's See also: trade, was See also: born in or near Nishapur, where he is said to have died in A.H
.
517 (A.D
.
1123)
.
At an early age he entered into a close friendship both withSee also: Nizam-ul-mulk and his school-See also: fellow IJassan ibn See also: Sabbath, who founded afterwards the terrible sect of the Assassins
.
When Nizam-ul-mulk was raised to the See also: rank of See also: vizier by the Seljuk sultan See also: Alp-Arslan (A.D
.
1063–1073) he bestowed upon IJassan ibn Sabbab the dignity of a chamber-lain, whilst offering a similar See also: court office to 'Omar Khayyam
.
But the latter contented himself with an See also: annual See also: stipend which would enable him to devote all his See also: time to his favourite studies of See also: mathematics and astronomy
.
His See also: standard See also: work on algebra, written in Arabic, and other See also: treatises of a similar character raised him at once to the foremost rank among the mathematicians of that age, and induced Sultan Malik-Shah to summon him in A.H
.
467 (A.D
.
1074) to institute astronomical observations on a larger See also: scale, and to aid him in his great enterprise of a thorough reform of the See also: calendar
.
The results of 'Omar's research were—a revised edition of the Zij or astronomical tables, and the introduction of the Ta'rikh-i-Malikshahi or Jalali, that is, the so-called Jalalian or Seljuk era, which commences in A.H
.
471 (A.D
.
1079, 15th See also: March)
.
'Omar's great scientific fame, however, is nearly eclipsed by his still greater poetical renown, which he owes to his rubd'is or quatrains, a collection of about 500 epigrams
.
The
See also: peculiar See also: form of the rubd'i—viz. four lines, the first, second and See also: fourth of which have the same See also: rhyme, while the third usually (but not always) remains rhymeless—was first successfully introduced into Persian literature as the exclusive vehicle for subtle thoughts on the various topics of Sufic mysticism by the See also: sheikh Abu Said bin Abulkhair,' but 'Omar differs in its treatment considerably from Abu Said
.
Although some of his quatrains are purely mystic and pantheistic, most of them bear quite another stamp; they are the breviary of aSee also: radical freethinker, who protests in the most forcible manner both against the narrowness, bigotry and uncompromising austerity of the orthodox ulema and the eccentricity, See also: hypocrisy and See also: wild ravings of advanced Sufis, whom he successfully combats with their own weapons, using the whole mystic terminology simply to ridicule mysticism itself
.
There is in this respect a great resemblance between him and See also: Hafiz, but 'Omar is decidedly See also: superior
.
He has often been called the Voltaire of the See also: East, and cried down as materialist and atheist
.
As far as purity of diction, See also: fine wit, crushing satire against a debased and ignorant See also: clergy, and a general sympathy with suffering humanity are concerned, 'Omar certainly reminds us of the great Frenchman; but there the comparison ceases
.
Voltaire never wrote anything equal to 'Omar's fascinating rhapsodies in praise of See also: wine, love and all earthly joys, and his passionate denunciations of a malevolent and inexorable
' Died See also: Jan
.
1049
.
Comp
.
Eth6's edition of his ruba'is in Sitzungsberichte der bayr
.
Akademie (1875), pp
.
145 seq., and (1878) pp
.
38 seq
.
; and E
.
G . See also: Browne's
See also: Literary Hist, of See also: Persia, ii
.
261
.
See also: fate which dooms to slow decay or sudden See also: death and to eternal oblivion all that is great, See also: good and beautiful in this See also: world
.
There is a touch of See also: Byron, Swinburne and even of See also: Schopenhauer in many of his ruba'is, which clearly proves that the See also: modern pessimist is by no means a novel creature in the See also: realm of philosophic thought and poetical See also: imagination
.
The See also: Leiden copy of 'Omar Khayyam's work on algebra was noticed as far back as 1742 by Gerald Meerman in the preface to his Specimen calculi fluxionalis; further notices of the same work by Sedillot appeared in the Nouv
.
Jour
.
As
.
(1834) and in vol. xiii. of the Notices et extraits See also: des See also: MSS. de la Bibl. ray
.
The See also: complete text, together with a French See also: translation (on the basis of the Leiden and See also: Paris copies, the latter first discovered by M
.
Libri, see his Histoire des sciences mathematiques en See also: Italic, i
.
300), was edited by F
.
Woepcke, L'Algebre d'Omar Alkhayyami (Paris, 1851) . Articles on 'Omar's See also: life and See also: works are found in Reinaud's Geographie d'Aboulfeda, pref., p
.
1o1; Notices et extraits, ix
.
143 seq.; Garcia de Tassy, Note sur See also: les Ruba'iyat de 'Omar Hhaiyam (Paris, 1857) ; Rieu, See also: Cat
.
Pers
.
MSS. in the Br
.
See also: Mus., ii
.
546; A
.
Christensen, Recherches sur les Ruba'iyat de 'Omar Hayyam (See also: Heidelberg, 1905) ; V
.
Zhukovski's ' See also: Umar Khayyam and the " Wandering " Quatrains, translated from the See also: Russian by E
.
D
.
See also: Ross in the Journal of the Royal See also: Asiatic Society, See also: xxx
.
(1898); E . G . Browne, Literary See also: History oPersia, ii
.
246
.
The quatrains have been edited at See also: Calcutta (1836) and Teheran (1857 and 1862); text and French translation by J
.
B
.
Nicolas (Paris, 1867) (very incorrect and misleading) ; a portion of the same, rendered in See also: English verse, by E
.
See also: FitzGerald (See also: London, 1859, 1872 and 1879)
.
FitzGerald's translation has been edited with commentary by H
.
M
.
Batson (1900), and the and ed. of the same (1868) by E
.
Heron See also: Allen (1908)
.
A new English version was published in Triibner's " See also: Oriental " series (1882) by E
.
H
.
Whinfield, and the first critical edition of the text, with translation, by the same (1883)
.
Important later works are N
.
H
.
Dole's variorum edition (1896), J
.
See also: Payne's translation (1898), E
.
Heron Allen's edition (1898) and the Life by J
.
K
.
M
.
Shirazi (1905); but the literature in new See also: translations and imitations has recently multiplied exceedingly
.
(H
.
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