{"product_id":"2940015526318","title":"The Moving Finger of Omar Khayyam: A Sermon","description":"One reason why I enjoy Omar Khayyam is that, in his treatment of the great questions which exercised his mind, he states the problem instead of solving it for thus, instead of satisfying, he stimulates and arouses me; because my soul rebels against any suggestion that life holds unsolvable puzzles, and rejects any weak solution; and while I realize that some may regard the questions raised as unanswerable and, overwhelmed by them, indulge in pessimistic wails and the despair of Fatalism, yet these are but the weaklings of the race, and the strong-souled will be stirred by the very difficulties to overcome them: life is not a Cul-de-Sac, a mere blind alley, and any wall, apparently at the end and seeming to close it, is a spur to effort; and in the solid stone true men will cut steps by which others shall ascend, if they fail to do so. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKlihu Vedder, in his magnificent illustrations of Omar's Rubaiyat, gives us, for the verse we are studying, the picture of a chained eagle, suggesting limitation; while in the back-ground the stars are bound, and their course through space clearly indicated, their orbits pre-determined. Now this may do for eagles and stars, but for man, he would be a rash fool who should undertake to define human limits, and to say \"Thus far shalt thou but no farther.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOmar Khayyám (Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Abu'l-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khayyām Nīshāpūrī (1048–1131)) was a Persian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and Islamic theology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Nishapur, at a young age he moved to Samarkand and obtained his education there. Afterwards he moved to Bukhara and became established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. He is the author of one of the most important treatises on algebra written before modern times, the Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, which includes a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. He contributed to a calendar reform.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, have not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings. Al-Zamakhshari referred to him as “the philosopher of the world”. Many sources have testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Avicenna in Nishapur where Khayyám was born and buried and where his mausoleum today remains a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOutside Iran and Persian speaking countries, Khayyám has had an impact on literature and societies through the translation of his works and popularization by other scholars. The greatest such impact was in English-speaking countries; the English scholar Thomas Hyde (1636–1703) was the first non-Persian to study him. The most influential of all was Edward FitzGerald (1809–83), who made Khayyám the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated translation and adaptations of Khayyám's rather small number of quatrains (Persian: رباعیات‎ rubāʿiyāt) in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOmar Khayyám died in 1131 and is buried in the Khayyam Garden at the mausoleum of Imamzadeh Mahruq in Nishapur. In 1963 the mausoleum of Omar Khayyam was constructed on the site by Hooshang Seyhoun.","brand":"Balefire Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070945575152,"sku":"2940015526318","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015526318_p0.jpg?v=1763621185","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015526318","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}