The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: The First and Fifth Versions of Edward Fitzgerald

"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in the Persian language and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1123), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. A Persian ruba'i is a two line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubaiyat", (derived from the Arabic root word for 4), meaning "quatrains". An exceptional edition, including both the first and fifth versions, with drawings on every recto through the first version.