Rediscovery of Hakim Omar Khayyam : The Great Persian Mathematician, Astronomer, Scientist, Philosopher, Poet and Eternal Role Model [Paperback]

Ali A. Parsa Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0966336100 | ISBN-13: 978-0966336108

1998 English translation from Persian Robaiiat and their everlasting wisdom with emphasis on combating substance abuse and hypocrisy. Please note that this is not just another translation. It contains a uniquely detailed analysis of Khayyams personality according to his poems with emphasis on combating substance abuse and hypocrisy. The author calls Omar's Robaiiat " Literary tranquilizers," the cheapest and most effective means of inspiration, relaxation, self restraint necessary for a moderate and healthy lifestyle free from abuse and excess. This unique treatise is not merely another translation but much more and the only one of its kind. Reading this book is a must for those who are interested in factual and yet relaxing poetries, called "literally tranquilizers" by the author or recipes for a happy, healthy, long and independent life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The fate which made Omar known to the West chiefly as a philosopher and poet rather than as a scientist and mathematician robbed him of a fame which would have pleased him more, since his poetical and philosophical works were perhaps not the writings in which he took the greatest interest. But he was not the oly philosopher whose scientific writings were neglected in the West. Others, both before and after him suffered the same fate. -- Davoud S. Kasir, Ph.D. Author, Algebra of Omar Khayyam, Teachers College, Columbia University.

About the Author

Essentially an educator. Originally Persian, graduate of Alborz Colleg High in Tehran, B.S. and M.A. California Ploytechnic at San Luis Obispo, CA; Ph.D. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Academic work includes 18 years of teaching angronomy, soil science and agricultural education in Iran; 12 years of work as soil scientist and soil conservationist at USDOI. Presently semi-retired and constultant, but mostly involved in traveling, reading, writing and publishing. Deeply concerned about the unprecedented apathy and substance abuse in America and their spread in the world that follows America. The author has decided to devote the rest of his life in combating the unprecedentd hypocrisy which is the root cause of faulty education devoid of ethics and morality that will eventually lead to the defeat of democracy and freedom throughout the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Ali a Parsa (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966336100
• ISBN-13: 978-0966336108
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,282,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful, Amazing Book, April 8, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Rediscovery of Hakim Omar Khayyam : The Great Persian Mathematician, Astronomer, Scientist, Philosopher, Poet and Eternal Role Model (Paperback)

How can you describe 246 pages of the most delightful writing in a paragraph? It is impossible. I can only say a few words that describe this wonderful book. It is an ongoing story, when you think all is good something happens. It is one of those books you soar through without noticing how much you have read. It is a happy and sad story, it is a calm and adventurous story, it has a very interesting plot, and I highly recommend it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who was Khayyam?, April 1, 2006

By 

Dr. Mohammad Pourheydarian "mpourheydarian" (campbellsville, ky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rediscovery of Hakim Omar Khayyam : The Great Persian Mathematician, Astronomer, Scientist, Philosopher, Poet and Eternal Role Model (Paperback)

Universally Khayyam is known as the book's title describes but there is a clear contradiction between Khayyam's poems and the quality of a Mathematician, scientist, jurisprudent,.... According to the late philosopher Muhammad Taghi Jafari Tabrizi citing from a book from Dr. Taghi Arani ( one of the 52 jailed by Reza Shah) Khayyam was the poet and Khayyami was the Mathematician, scientist,..... Two different individuals with two opposing qualities.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars And if a Curse -- why, then, Who set it there?, January 11, 2009

By 

Marius Cipolla - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rediscovery of Hakim Omar Khayyam : The Great Persian Mathematician, Astronomer, Scientist, Philosopher, Poet and Eternal Role Model (Paperback)

The later book on Khayyam, "The Wine of Wisdom" by Mehi Aminrazavi, is an improvement on this earnest but clumsy and strangely blinkered biography.

The points made are those which are somewhat irritably repeated ad nauseam by so many modern Persian scholars: that Khayyam was a great scientist but only a minor poet, that Westerners do not see the full picture, that the language of the Rubaiyyat is figurative and we should not assume that the wine, women and parties celebrated by Khayyam are anything more than metaphors for a far more austere message -- and so forth.

Above all, the authors attack the FitzGerald translations as bawdy ramblings, scribbled in rancid Victorian juices which never flowed from Khayyam's thousand-year-old but still-translucent grapes. To them, FitzGerald has sullied the purity of a devout Muslim scientist by exalting a few speculative elements in his writing and encouraging us to believe that Khayyam was a fatalist, an agnostic, a sensualist and a sot.

Unhappily, both Aminrazavi and Parsa seem unable to understand the English of the FitzGerald poem, which is complex and vast in scope, and (like the poetry of Tennyson and Wordsworth, FitzGerald's idols) only simple to the simple reader.

Like most English readers who have taken the trouble to read subsequent translations of the Rubaiyyat, both in poetry and prose, and in other languages, I reach the conclusion that FitzGerald's versions (especially the First Edition) have never been improved upon -- and the secondary conclusion that they do not betray the themes and thoughts of Khayyam in any substantive way.

That which is universal in Khayyam's poetry belongs to all the world. Attempts to show us that he was a great scientist as well as a great poet are very welcome. The argument that his quatrains constitute a severe thesis on Islamic theology smacks of the six impossible things that modern Iranians (like the White Queen in "Alice in Wonderland") are called upon to believe every day before breakfast.