Untitled

NOTE XXV. 'UMAR-I-KHAYYAM' 139
(3) The Zij, or Calendar, of Malikshah, to which, as noticed above
(s.v. Ibnu'l-Athir), 'Umar contributed.
'
'
J
(4) A brief treatise on ^atural Philosophy. ',
9
(5) A Persian treatise on Being, composed for Fakhru'1-Mulk l
ibn
Mu'ayyad, of which a M. (Or. 6572, f. 51') is preserved^
the British
Museum. In another MS. (Sappl. Pers.,139, No. 7) in the Biblio-
theque Nationale in Paris, described by M. E. Blochet in his Catalogue
des' Manuscrits Persons (Paris, 1905, vol. i, p. 108), the name of the
person to whom this work is dedicated is given as Fakhru'd-Din
Mu"ayyadu'l-Mulk, whom Mirza Muhammad is inclined to identify with
the son of the Nizamu'1-Mulk who bore this latter title. This' treatise,
according to a manuscript note by M. Blochet, has been translated by
M. ChristenseVi and 'published in the Monde Oriental (Copenhagen,
'905)-
,
(6) A treatise on Growth and Obligation (Kawn ma Taklif}.
(7) Methods for ascertaining the respective proportions of gold and
silver in an amalgam or admixture containing bo'to. A MS. of this
^No. 1158) exists in the library of Gotha.
(8) A treatise entitled Lawdzimu'l-Amkina on the Seasons and on
the causes of the diversity of climate in different places.
The Quatrains.
t^ow many of the Rub&iyydt or Quatrains attributed to 'Umar-i-
Khayyam are really his it is impossible to determine, since no very
ancient manuscript collection of them has yet been discovered 2
but
;
Zhukovski has enumerated more than fourscore which are ascribed on
at least equally good authority to other poets 3 . Although they have
repeatedly been lithographed in Persia and India, they enjoy, thanks to
Edward FitzGerald's translation, a far greater celebrity in the West, and
especially in England and America, than in the land of their origin,
where no one would think of ranking 'Umar as a poet in the same
category as Firdawsi, Sa'di or Hafiz. The causes of 'Umar's popularity
in the West are manifold. First, he had the supreme good fortune
to fine? a translator like FitzGerald. Secondly, the beauty of his quatrain's
depends more on th'eir substance than on their form, whereas the converse
1
Perhaps Fakhru'1-Mulk ibn Nizamu'1-Mulk, the Prime Minister of Sultan
Barkiyaruq.'>
2 The oldest MS. (Bodl. No. 525) was copied in A.H. 865 (A.D. 1460-1) nearly
three centuries and a rialf after 'Umar's death. The text of this, vs\ facsimile and
in print, with literal prose translation, was published by Mr Edward Heron Allen
(London: H. S. Nichols, Ltd.) in 1898. Mirza Muhammad informs me that a year
or two before the War (i.e. in 1912 or 1913) there was offered for sale by an Armenian
dealer in Paris a very fine autograph MS. of the Mtfnisu'l-Ahrdr of the Persian poet
Muhammad ibn Badr-i-Jajarmi, transcribed in the year 740/1339-1340. It comprised
about '600 leaves, and contained extensive selections from the works of some two
hundred of the most celebrated Persian poets from the earliest times down to the elate
of compilation. Amongst these poems were included some twenty of 'Umir-i-Khay-
yam's'quatrains, which were copied by Mirza Muhammad into a note-book. I do not
know what has become of this precious manuscript.
3 For a list of these see my Lit. Hist, of Persia, ii, 256-7. ,