Untitled

,. be
I 3 8
,
ever, render its acceptance vpry difficult. Mirza Muhammad has communic^.ted
to- me the ingenious suggestion that its historical basis is to
found in a passage in Yaqrit's Mu'jamu'l Ud&bd or " Dictionary of
Learned Men 1
," where it is stated on the authority of Abu'l-Hasan ibn
Abi'l-Qasim Zayd'al-Bayhaqi, author of the Mashdribu't-Tajdrib, that in
the year 434/^042-3 the poet 'AH ibnu'l-Ha'san al-Bakhafzi and Abii
Nasr Muhammad ibn Maiysiir al-Kund'uri, who subsequently became
famous under the title of 'Amidu'l-Mulk as Minister to the Saljiiq
Sultans Tughril Beg and Alp Arslan, were fellow-pupils of the same
Imam Muwaffaq of Nishapiir at whose lectures the "Three Friends"
are to
supposed
have become acquainted. That the framework o'f a
story should be preserved with the substitution of more interesting or
more celebrated personalities as its heroes is a very common literary
phenomenon. If this has happened in the present case, the poet al-
Bakharzi has simply been replaced by jthe poet 'Umar-i-Khayyam, and
Alp Arslan's earlier Minister 'Amidul-Mulk by his later t Minister
Nizdmrfl-Mulk) the Imam Muwaffaq remaining in both versions.
"
n. Ta'n'kh-i-Guzida. *
This well-known history, composed in 730/1329-1330, also contains
a brief notice of 'Uniar and cites one of his quatrains. ("E. J. W. Gibb
Memorial" Series, xiv, i, pp. 817-818.)
12. Firdawsu't-Tawarikh.
This work, the "Paradise of Histories," composed in A.H. 808
(A.D. 1405-6) by Mawlana Khusraw of Abarqiih, contains an account
of 'Umar-i-Khayyam of* which the Persian text is reproduced from
Zhukovski's article on pp. 217-219 of the Persian notes, and of which
the substance is given in my Lit. Hist., ii, 254.
13. The Ta'rikh-i-Alfi.
This late work, composed, as its title implies, in A.H. 1000 (A.D. 1 59 1-2) 2
for the Emperor Akbar by Ahmad ibn Nasru'llah of Tatta in India,
contains a very entertaining anecdote concerning 'Umar-i-Khayyam's
belief in Metempsychosis, which is given in Englislj -on pp. 254^ of
vol. ii of my Lit. Hist, of Persia, and of which the Kxt will be fou,nd on
pp. 219220 of the Persian notes. <
The above list is far from exhaustive, but contains all the older and
more authentic as well as the more interesting of the modern ndtices of
this famous man.
These include
'Umar-i-Khayyam's
Scientific Works.
(1) His treatise on Algebra, of which the Arabic text accompanied .
by a French translation was published at Paris in 1851 by F. Woepcke.
(2) On the difficulties of Euclid's Definitions, of which a manuscript
is preserved at Leyden (No. 967). See also Brockelmann, i, 471.
1 "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series, vi, 5, p. 124.
2 It extends, however, only to the year 997/1588-9.