Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 13 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an opening prose page introducing Omar Khayyám, the Persian astronomer-poet. The text provides biographical context, stating he lived in the eleventh-to-twelfth centuries and that his life story is intertwined with that of Nizám ul Mulk, a vizier to Seljuk rulers. The passage explains that Nizám ul Mulk's written testament (*Wasiyat*) contains an account relating to Omar Khayyám, and the text quotes from this source as it appeared in the *Calcutta Review*. The page appears designed as an introductory article or section heading, presenting historical and genealogical information before the narrative proper begins.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
OMAR KHAYYAM, THE Astronomer-Poet of Persia. Omar KuayyAm was born at Naishapir in Khorasan in the latter half of our Eleventh, and died within the First Quarter of our Twelfth Century. The slender Story of his Life is curiously twined about that of two other very considerable Figures in their Time and Country: one of whom tells the Story of all Three. This was Nizim ul Mulk, Vizyr to Alp Arslan the Son, and Malik Shah the Grandson, of Toghrul Beg the Tartar, who had wrested Persia from the feeble Successor of Mahmid the Great, and founded that Seljukian Dynasty which finally roused Europe into the Crusades. This Nizam ul Mulk, in his Wasiyat—or T'estament—which he wrote and left as a Memorial for future Statesmen—relates the following, as quoted in the Calcutta Review, No. 59, from Mirkhond’s History of the Assassins. “One of the greatest of the wise men of Khorassan 1 * GONG DOO Ss. (C©)