The jewel-encrusted edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

bbc.com

36 points·prismatic··3 comments

It's quite an incredible piece of anti-establishment and anti-religious work considering the time and place of its authorship.

The Koran! well, come put me to the test — Lovely old book in hideous error drest — Believe me, I can quote the Koran too, The unbeliever knows his Koran best.

And do you think that unto such as you, A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew, God gave the Secret, and denied it me? — Well, well, what matters it! believe that too.

Old Khayyám, say you, is a debauchee; If only you were half so good as he! He sins no sins but gentle drunkenness, Great-hearted mirth, and kind adultery.

But yours the cold heart, and the murderous tongue, The wintry soul that hates to hear a song, The close-shut fist, the mean and measuring eye, And all the little poisoned ways of wrong.

So I be written in the Book of Love, I have no care about that book above; Erase my name, or write it, as you please— So I be written in the Book of Love.

Actually, in its heyday when Khayyam lived (11th-12th century), Islamic Persia wasn't all that pious and more or less tolerated heresy. That's what led to all its great discoveries -- they were on their way to having the Scientific Revolution before the West. It was the Black Plague in the 14th century that put an end to that.

The only problem is that Fitzgerald's work is very loosely inspired by ruba3yat not attributable to a single person

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