{"id":43754,"date":"2023-05-04T14:08:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T10:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/?p=43754"},"modified":"2025-09-22T20:43:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T20:43:13","slug":"omar-khayyam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/omar-khayyam\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Khayyam, When the Laughing Spring is Blowing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-5.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-43759\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-5.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"299\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;\u2026 and then I sought a green plant or something there to bring home as a souvenir. There were some plants growing among the bricks but they were so poor and inappropriate. So I looked around the tomb surrounding inside the garden; fortunately, I discovered a row of red flowers. There were no flower in the season and the leaves were even brown and withered. However, I finally discovered a few green plants; three complete bushes which I pick some cuttings of them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He sent them back to Britain where they were planted at Kev Garden and later on the translator of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam&#8217;s Rubaiyat<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Edward FitzGerald&#8217;s tomb. The plant which was a pink color rose flower with pleasant odor was spread throughout the world. Today, it is known as the &#8220;Omar Khayyam&#8217;s Rose Flower.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was only the still expressive beauty in Khayyam&#8217;s poems that motivated William Simpson, a British painter, to come to Neyshabur, a city near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/?s=mashhad&amp;post_type=post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mashhad<\/a>,\u00a0to paint a memorial painting of the poet&#8217;s tomb.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, Loved One, when the Laughing Spring is blowing, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Thee beside me and the Cup o\u2019erflowing,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I pass the day upon this Waving Meadow,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And dream the while, no thought on Heaven bestowing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(One of the Khayyam&#8217;s ear candy Rubaiyat)<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Not Just a Poet<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-6.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-43760\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-6.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"305\" height=\"229\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar Khayyam is one of the internationally well-known Iranian poets \u2013 maybe the most famous one. But it should be indicated that Khayyam was not only a poem, but also a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. Here are some interesting points about him:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was the first person who showed that the cubic equation may have more than one correct answer or no answer at all.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was the first person who determined the binomial expansion coefficients; later Isaac Newton also obtained the same result through his researches. This is today known as Khayyam and Newton&#8217;s binomial. It is worth to indicate that writing this coefficients in good order forms Khayyam and Pascal&#8217;s triangle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He calculated the Jalali Calendar with exact 33 years of rotation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He calculated earth&#8217;s orbit around the sun up to 16 decimal places.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam considered himself as an Avicenna&#8217;s student. According to Beyhaghi (another respected Iranian thinker), Khayyam was reading Avicenna&#8217;s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Book of Healing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before resting in peace.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the Moon&#8217;s holes is named Khayyam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is an asteroid named Omar Khayyam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Martin Luther King pointed to him in his speeches and Abraham Lincoln read his poems before going to bed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After translating his works by FitzGerald, Khayyam became a well-known poet in the West.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam&#8217;s influence on western literature, especially on Mark Twain and T. S. Eliot is obvious.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Omar Khayyam in Myths<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-43758\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam-3.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are some myths created for Khayyam and his poems. In one the myths we read that Khayyam was drinking, but suddenly a strong wind began blowing and his wine spilt. So he composed:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thou broke my wine ewer, the Lord<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thou closed the door of pleasure for me, the Lord<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I drank but thou became drunk<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Art thee drunk, my Lord!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When he composed this blasphemous poet, the God blackened his face! So, Khayyam regretted and composed another poem:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who has done no sin, my Lord!<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And how lived no sin doer, my Lord!<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I do evil and thou reward badly<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what&#8217;s our difference, my Lord!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when he expressed his regret this way, Khayyam&#8217;s face became white again. (It should be mentioned that I couldn&#8217;t find the FitzGerald&#8217;s translation of the above Rubaiyat, so I translated it myself.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course there are other myths created for Khayyam, for example, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three School Friends<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>&#8220;Omar the Tentmaker&#8221;, Khayyam&#8217;s Influence<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar Khayyam, as an everblooming Iranian figure, has a copious influence on various genres of art and literature. I am going to briefly illustrate his influence on literature, cinema, music, and television in the following lines:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/khayyam-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-43757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/khayyam-2.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"301\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are novels such as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar, the Tentmaker: A Romance of Old Persian<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Nathan Haskell Dole and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar the Tentmaker of Naishapur<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by John Smith Clarke. They were written after FitzGerald rendered Khayyam&#8217;s name as &#8220;Omar the Tentmaker.&#8221; I can also mention a play named <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar the Tentmaker<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Richard Walton Tully.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a film named <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar Khayyam<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Furthermore, text from and parts of quatrains of Rubaiyat appeared in different films such as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Lover&#8217;s Oath<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duel in the Sun<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pandora and the Flying Dutchman<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some of the quatrains of FitzGerald&#8217;s translation of Rubaiyat became songs by different composers and singers such as Granville Bantock, Alan Hovhaness, Umm Kulthum, Dorothy Ashby, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam influence on television and other arts are also obvious.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Khayyam&#8217;s Songs<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43763 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/khayam-8.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"303\" height=\"227\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam&#8217;s Songs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a book, written in Persian by Sadegh Hedayat, a famous Iranian novelist and story writer. He classified Khayyam&#8217;s Rubaiyat into different categories as follow:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creation Mystery<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pain of Life<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writings from Eternity<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cycle Rotation<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rotating Particles<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let Whatever Comes, Come<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It Is Nothing<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Discover Now<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some Iran experts believe that Khayyam&#8217;s Rubaiyat are written against hypocrite ascetics. Abdol Reza Modarres Zade, the vice chancellor of International Association of Persian Language and Literature Promotion says that Khayyam depicted the unreliability and transience of life. The pungent language of Khayyam in Rubaiyat is a sharp whip on hypocrite ascetics.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Omar Khayyam&#8217;s Life<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emam Ghiyath Al-Din-e Abu Al-Fath-e Omar Benn-e Ebrahim-e Khayyam-e Neyshaburi (that&#8217;s a really long name, isn&#8217;t it? But it was common in Old Persian period) is one of the great Iranian philosopher, mathematician, and poets. He lived in the fifth and sixth century AH. He was named Khayyam (tentmaker) because in fact his father was a tentmaker.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omar Khayyam was one the greatest scientists of his period. Early in his life, he began learning the philosophy and sciences of the period and soon became a well-known figure in philosophy, astronomy, and mathematic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-43756\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Khayyam.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam Poems\" width=\"301\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He had an excellent skill in physician as well; it is narrated that he cured the smallpox disease of Sanjar Sultan when he was a kid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam wrote his poems in Persian and Arabic and possessed valuable books in different sciences. He enjoyed his fame during his life and people praised him by epithets such as Emam, Philosopher, and Hojjat Al-Haq.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He lived under the kingdom of Seljuk dynasty; they governed a wide land from Khorasan to Kerman, Rey, Azerbaijan, Rome, Iraq, Yemen, and Fars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khayyam is mostly known as a poet, but indeed he is a philosopher and mathematician as well. He studied Avicenna&#8217;s works and translated one of his famous speeches concerning oneness of God into Persian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is narrated that he travelled to Samarqand, Balkh, Herat, and Isfahan. He perspicuously expressed his philosophical point of views and talked about religious beliefs. Khayyam had great achievements in different sciences as well as poetry.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Traditional Singing of Khayyam\u2019s Rubaiyat in Bushehr<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the 11th-century<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Iranian poet Omer Khayyam lived in the city of Nishapur, which is located in the northeast of nowadays Iran, no place appreciates his poetry like the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr. Here you can find a traditional form of southern Iranian music called \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d, consisting out of the singing of Khayyam\u2019s Rubaiyat in the accompaniment of traditional southern Iranian instruments like flute, \u201cNey Jofti\u201d and \u201cNey Hambon\u201d, a form of bagpipes. Rubaiyat is a form of poetry where the poem consists of four short verses.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past few years, the \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d enjoyed a spike in popularity. It is now performed almost daily in the Cafes of Bushehr and became a must see for everyone visiting this city.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Experiencing Bushehr<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whoever goes to Bushehr will be greeted more than warmly by the locals. Being maybe one of the best examples for the infamous hospitality of the Iranians living in the south at the shores of the Persian Gulf Bushehr has a lot to offer for its visitors. You can find in the narrow alleys of the beautiful old city center and around the bazaar some of the best fish restaurants of all Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bazaar offers some typical southern Iranian goods like dates, \u00a0regional clothes and, of course, fish. But also, the culture scene in Bushehr is very active, especially when it comes to music which has an important role in the everyday lives of the people of Bushehr, especially \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.-Bushehr.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-34575\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.-Bushehr.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam\u2019s rubaiyat\" width=\"303\" height=\"227\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The singing of Khayyam\u2019s poems (Khayyam Khani)<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a special kind of love story between the poet Omar Khayyam and the city of Bushehr. Although he never visited this city his Rubaiyat is the foundation for the so-called \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d. In spite of the fact that the \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d was originally performed in closed family celebrations like weddings, it became nowadays a public event performed in the cafes of Bushehr. One of the most popular \u201cKhayyam Khani\u201d can be found in the caf\u00e9 \u201cHajj Raees\u201d, which is located in one of the beautiful alleys of the old city of Bushehr. Every Thursday and Friday evening the caf\u00e9 will be flooded by locals to participate in it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To the rhythm of drums, the singer, an old man called Kheder, starts singing the rubaiyat of Khayyam (and sometimes poems of other poets like Hafez too) while the crowd is participating by clapping rhythmically to the music. The whole performance starts slowly, Kheder is alternately singing and playing the flute and the whole crowd is clapping hypnotised. Suddenly a young man starts to play the bagpipes (Ney Hambon) and the whole rhythm becomes much faster. The crowd becomes euphoric and men start dancing. After one and a half hour, the crowd leaves tiredly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3.-Kayyam-Khani.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-34576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/3.-Kayyam-Khani.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam\u2019s rubaiyat\" width=\"301\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The philosophy of Omar Khayyam<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But why is there this connection between Khayyam and Bushehr you can not find anywhere else in Iran, not even in Khayyam\u2019s hometown of Nishapur? Maybe it\u2019s because the philosophy behind Khayyam\u2019s poems is fitting very well to Bushehr: He is telling us to live in the moment and to enjoy our lives now and here. This message is fitting well to a city of fishermen and sailors who would go to the dangerous sea for days and months, leaving their beloved ones back in Bushehr without knowing if they would come home or not. Khayyam\u2019s poems reminded them not to think too much about this difficult situation they can\u2019t change but to focus on the now and here. That\u2019s why till today the people of Bushehr sing poems of Khayyam, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My friend! Come here so that we don\u2019t worry about tomorrow<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And let us use this one breath of life we have<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One day, far from now, we will die<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And join the ones who died seven thousand years ago<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Title.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34580 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Title.jpg\" alt=\"Khayyam\u2019s rubaiyat\" width=\"301\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;\u2026 and then I sought a green plant or something there to bring home as a souvenir. There were some plants growing among the bricks but they were so poor and inappropriate. So I looked around the tomb surrounding inside the garden; fortunately, I discovered a row of red flowers. There were no flower in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":786,"featured_media":59711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/786"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94057,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43754\/revisions\/94057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tappersia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}