Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 89:354 (Apr 1932)
Article: The Rubaiyat And The Christ
Author: Gwynne Dalrymple

BSac 89:354 (April 1932) p. 172

The Rubaiyat And The Christ

Gwynne Dalrymple

Once upon a time at Nishapur there lived an astronomer and mathematician. Intimate details of his life have not survived to us. Between his observations on Mizar and Algol, and his labors with astrolobes and calendars, he found time to think upon the great problems of life, upon those mysteries and questions which have always perplexed the understanding of men,—the problems of life and death, of pleasure and sorrow, of good and evil. He embodied his conclusions,—which were, we think, confessedly unsatisfactory, — in little four-line stanzas, which in the Persian are called “rubaiyat.”

Since that time many generations have come and gone, so that the more learned works of the astronomer of Nishapur are forgotten, or raked over only by curious antiquarians. We doubt whether very many of our readers have ever perused Omar Khayyam’s Arabic treatise on algebra; or delved into his methods, the best at that time yet devised, for the geometrical solution of equations. But not much dust has fallen upon his Rubaiyat. They are still read, admired, believed. To the modern taste they have still the fresh piquancy which they bore when first penned at the observatories of Khorassan.

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness,—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

Strange that the labors of the scientist should decay, while the trifles of the poet are imperishable! To be sure, the Rubaiyat owe some of their popularity to Mr. Fitzgerald’s excellent translation, and some to their intrinsic beauty; yet there is another reason. The ancient quatrains have survived because they present to us topics which, while eternally old, are yet eternally new. Their theme is Fate. In a sense this is the most trite of human problems. In another sense, it can never be trite, for to each son of

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Adam it comes afresh. The Rubaiyat present to us the conflicting claims of pleasure and duty,—claims which perplexed the first man and shall perplex the last. The stanzas of the astronomer attempt to see through good and evil; and if they are unable to solve the mystery they propose, they are none the less human for their failure.

Let us examine the teaching of the Rubaiyat as to fate. The Mohammedans have always held that Allah is a god of power. He wills arbitrarily; and all things, even the destiny of men, are according to his will. Omar, who in spite of his free-thinking was deeply tinctured with the Koran, sets out in his verses the hopelessness of fate:

“The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes,