TOMB OF OMAR KHAYYAM.

Thames Star, Issue 14664, 19 April 1915, Page 7

TOMB OF OMAR KHAYYAM.

Professor A. V. Williams Jackson, of Columbia University, in his new, hook just published, tells of a visit be paid to the tomb of Omar Khay- ■ rv.v-, near Nishapur, in Persia. The: ■o: i- <ntitled "From, Oonstan- ■■'<; --I.? 'o Ihe Home of Omar Khay- . ' ;11 i describes the Professor's Is 'v -Transcaucasia and North--i: ; ';v ■ ia. ' Omar., .it ■ would ap- ::■■'■; hi-o rot much hcno:ir in his' | o a ro-intry in these days. Only halt ;■>. (1 ■■>••{n would knowof him, Professor Wi Ifnrrs .says, and thn'as "Doctor [•"'.nyjari," the sci:nfcist and astron.nv.rr. Thoy might, r.oseibly add •.hat ho was a philosopher and sage, but ncne would remember him as a, foct— His very name recalls the hated! Sanncalip Omar an.l the Arab conquest ; and his v;i no-bibbing verses,; L'xccpt wh^en given a strained' mysti-; :al and allegorical interpretation byj the Sufis, are taken literally ; while! tiis freedom of thought in expressiugj his attitude toward the One ;Eternali Being is looked upon as little less than blasphemy. t Professor Williams mentions that one of the Grand Viziers at Teheran, who knew English, said of him, "Your famous version by FitzGerald is better than the original." Omar's tomb lies about four miles south-east of Nishapur, and "«thei fields of poppies springing up by th» wayside?—though not Omar's roses and tulips that marked the blood of buried Kings"—formed a bright contrast to the dusty heaps of clay and sand around. The grave adjoins the mosque of the Imam-Za.-dah Mahruk, and the Professor writes— '"Upon reaching the arched portal of the entrance, a mass of emerald bushes and yellow flowering shrubs, amid a profusion of rose blossoms, rose into view. It was truly a typipical Persian garden, with roUghlyoutlined walks and stone-coped) water-courses, and with shade trees and flowers on every hand." Its appearance, indeed, recalled the story of the devoted disciple of Omar who had visited his master's grave some years after the great man's death, in 1123, and who told the story of Omar's prophecy that "his grave would be wl»ere flowers in the springtime would shed their portals over his dust." , The grave is described by Professor Williams as beneath an arched wing that has been added to the left of the mosque— "The sarcophagus stands beneath the central one of three arched recesses, its niche measuring about thirteen feet across, while the flanking arches measure about ten feet each, and are empty. A couple of terraced brick steps lead to the flooring, where it rests. The oblong tomb is a simple case made of brick and cement, the poets' remains Feposing beneath. . . .Vandal scribblers (found in Persia as in every land) have desecrated v/ith random scrawls* and have also scratched their names upon the brown mortar of the adjoining walls, thus disclosing,, th«| white cement underneath. A stick of wood, a stone, ana" some fragments of shards profaned the top of the sarcophagus when we saw it. There was nothing else." The Professor was tempted to open his copy of the "Rubaiyat" upon it, but for the fact that he knew the little book would be carried off and sold to the first possible purchaser. It is pointed out by Professor WilKams that '"no rose tree can now shed its^petals upon the poet's tomb, as was once the case, in fulfilment of what had been, as tradition tells us, the dearest wish of his heart." Nevertheless, as Dr. E. Dennison, Ross rightly observes, "it is quita. probable that the poet's tomb is,, or at least was, annually coverexl both by rose leaves and by~iruit blossoms ;" and Professor Williams adds that the garden to-day is so rich in roses as almost "to make one in love with death," as Shelley said of Keats's burial-place. He regrets that some of Omar's admirers in the Occident do not provide a suitable inscription on the spot to show the renown he enjoys in the West. Howsver. the site where he rests, like the tombs of Hafiz and Sa'di at Shiraz. is preserved from forgetfulness by the mosque which it adjoUs."—'Westminster Gaaette."