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Finding Aid for the Collection of Material about Omar Khayyam, 1872-1948
378
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Title: Collection of Material about Omar Khayyam,
Date (inclusive): 1872-1948
Collection number: 378
Extent: 5 boxes (2.5 linear ft.)
Abstract: Omar Khayyam (1048?-1131) was a Persian poet, astronomer, and mathematician of the early Seljuk period and is best known for
a collection of Rubáiyát, or quatrains, known as the
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. The collection contains materials related to the work of Omar Khayyam and scholars who studied his works, much of it collected
by Ambrose George Potter in the course of his biographical compilations.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Omar Khayyam (1048?-1131) was a Persian poet, astronomer, and mathematician of the early Seljuk period, best known for a collection
of Rubáiyát, or quatrains, known as the
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam; in 1859 the English translator Edward FitzGerald selected and combined 101 of the quatrains into a single work, producing
a continuity that created an English language masterpiece; FitzGerald's work was publicized by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and
the emphasis on the sensuous enrichment of life helped to influence the Decadent school of English poetry in the 1890s; since
FitzGerald, the Rubáiyát has been translated into numerous languages. Ambrose George Potter was the outstanding bibliographer
of Omar, and author of
A Bibliography of Printed Editions of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam in Foreign Languages (1923) and
A Bibliography of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Together With Kindred Matter in Prose and Verse Pertaining Thereto (1929); he also completed work on a revised and enlarged edition of his 1929 bibliography, but his materials were destroyed
by fire in 1938 before publication, and he did not publish another edition before his death in the late 1940s.
Collection contains materials related to the work of Omar Khayyam and scholars who studied his works, much of it collected
by Ambrose George Potter in the course of his biographical compilations. Includes manuscripts, correspondence, illustrations,
clippings, photographs, bibliographical notes, catalogs, theater programs, sheet music and ephemera pertaining to productions
based on the work of Omar Khayyam. Contains letters to Omar bibliographer Ambrose George Potter, manuscripts from translators,
and articles, essays and ephemera pertaining to translator Edward FitzGerald's life and works.
Portions of the collection are in Persian, German and Spanish.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Omar Khayyam--Rubáiyát.
FitzGerald, Edward, 1809-1883.
Sufi poetry, Persian--Translations.
Other Index Terms Related to this Collection
Potter, George Ambrose--Collector.