KHAYYAM, the takhallus or literary title of Omar, a native of Naishapur in Khorasan, a cele brated poet and astronomer.
In the days when Alp Arslan ruled in the stead of his father Toghrul Beg, three lads, each of whom was destined to rise to eminence or noto riety, might have been seen day by day meeting to learn wisdom from the instructions of the famous Imam Mowaffak of Naishapur. Every lad who studied under a master so renowned amongst the doctors of Islam, was deemed most fortunate, for his success in life was no longer a matter of doubt. One of the three was Nizam-ul-Mulk, afterwards vizir to Alp Arnim. Another was Hasan - bin - Sabbah, the founder of the sect of the Assassins, whose leader was known to the Crusaders as the Old Man of the Mountains. The third was Omar Khayyam, afterwards astronomer and poet. Nizain-uh:sfulk, in the 1Vasiyah, tells the story how Hasan one day, alluding to their good prospects, said, Let us make a vow, that to whomsoever good fortune falls, he shall share it equally with the rest, and reserve no pre-eminence for himself.' Be it so,' the others replied. Nizam ul-Mulk was the first to rise to eminence, and when ho became vizir, Masan received a good appointment, but, entering on a course of intrigue, lie was degraded and disgraced, became the head of the Ismaili sect, which for a while was the terror of the eastern world, and Nizam-ul-Mulk fell a victim to their cruelty. Omar Khayyam received a pension from the royal treasury, and busied himself in ' winning knowledge of every kind, and especially in astronomy.' In the reign of Malik Shah he settled at Merv. He was one of eight scientific men employed in reforming the calendar. The result was the Jalali era, of which Gibbon says, ' It surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style.' Ile also wrote a treatise on algebra. But ho is better known as a poet, and his Itubaiyat or qua trains have been translated into several European languages.
Ile wrote very little, but what he has written will live when the lengthy poems of inferior men are forgotten, By some he is thought to have been a Sufi ; but though he uses Sufi forms of expression, his language is more in keeping with his position as a leading scientific man.
Those who place Omar among the Sufi quote the following verse :— synagogue and cloister, mosque, and school, Hell's terrors and heaven's lures men's bosoms rule; But they who pierce the secrets of "the truth," Sow not such empty chaff their hearts to fool.'
In ono verso is a grave and serious rebuke, in a second is sarcastic ridicule :— Some feed false hope on that vain fantasy Of houris feigned in Paradise to be ; But when the veil is lifted, they will see How far they are from Thee, how far from Thee. In Paradise are !minis, as you know, And fountains that with wine and honey flow; If these bo lawful in the world above, What harm to love the like down here below ?' Another verse says ' Pagodas, just as mosques, are homes of prayer ; 'Tis prayer that church bells chime unto the air ; Yea, Church and Ka'aba, Rosary and Cross, Are all but divers tongues of world•wide prayer.' Omar Khayyam loves to balance antitheses of belief. He formulated no system, but only scattered forth in elegant verse his doubts and difficulties. He lived and died a sceptic. He can not understand the nature of things. He regrets that he haft appeared on the scene at all :— never would have come, had I been asked ; I would as lief not go, if I were asked ; And, to be short, I would annihilate All coming, being, going, were I asked.' He appears as lost in unbelief. Fatalism settled on his mind :— The "tablet " all our fortune doth contain, Writ by the "pen" that needs not bliss nor blame ; 'Twas writ at first whatever was to be, To grieve or strive is labour all in vain.' Moral responsibility is utterly denied The potter did himself these vessels frame : What makes him cast them out to scorn and shame ? If he has made them well, why should he break them? And though he marred them, they aro not to blame.' The figure of a game at chess is introduced to show how helpless a creature man is under the inexorable rule of a pitiless fate :— We are but chessmen, who to move are fain Just as the great Chessplayer doth ordain, He moves us on life's chessboard to and fro, And then in death's box shuts us up again.' Omar had not always been thus resigned. Ile says— I put my lips to the cup, for I did yearn The secret of the future life to learn ; And from His lip I heard a whisper drop, Drink for once gong you never will return.
—Madras Mail, 23(1 March 1882 ; Saturday Review, 5th January 1884.