The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Omar Khayyam (1048-1122) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who was not known as a poet in his lifetime. Later, a body of quatrains became attached to his name, although not all were his work. These verses lay in obscurity until 1859, when Edward FitzGerald, (1809-1883), an English country gentleman, published a free adaptation of this Persion poetry. After its discovery by D.G. Rosetti and others, the verse became extremely popular. Essentially a hedonist and a skeptic, Omar Khayyam, through FitzGerald, spoke with both an earthy and spiritual freedom that stirred universal response. As a result, the "Rubaiyat" became one of the best-known and most often quoted English classics.