The next anecdote in the Chahár Maqála (No. xxviii) also refers to 'Umar, and runs as follows:—

“In the winter of A.H. 508 (= A.D. 1114-15) the King * sent a messenger to Merv to the Prime Minister Ṣadru'd-Dín Muḥammad b. al-Mudhaffar (on whom be God's Mercy), bidding him tell Khwája Imám 'Umar to select a favourable time for him to go hunting, such that therein should be no snowy or rainy days. For Khwája Imám 'Umar was in the Minister's company, and used to lodge at his house.

“So the Minister sent a message to summon him, and told him what had happened. The Khwája went and looked into the matter for two days, and made a careful choice; and he himself went and superintended the mounting of the King at the auspicious moment. When the King was mounted and had gone but a short distance, the sky became overcast with clouds, a wind arose, and snow and mist supervened. All present fell to laughing, and the King desired to turn back; but Khwája Imám ['Umar] said: ‘Have no anxiety, for this very hour the clouds will clear away, and during these five days there will be not a drop of moisture.’ So the King rode on, and the clouds opened, and during those five days there was no wet, and no cloud was seen.

“But prognostication by the stars, though a recognised art, is not to be relied on, and whatever the astrologer predicts, he must leave [its fulfilment] to Fate.”

These earliest notices of 'Umar show us that he was alive and well in A.H. 508 [A.D. 1114-15], that his grave was at Níshápúr, and that the idea prevalent in the 'Umar Khayyám Society that he was buried under a rose-bush is a delusion based on the double meaning of the word gul, which means a flower in general as well as the rose in particular, the context in the full form of the original anecdote, as here given, showing clearly that not rose-leaves, but the blossoms of peach-trees and pear-trees, are here meant.

Until the year 1897 the numerous biographical notices of 'Umar published in Europe were, almost without exception,

Recent researches into 'Umar's biography. derived from late Persian works of little or no authority, whose object was rather to weave romantic tales than to set forth historical facts. An epoch was marked by the appearance in that year of Professor Valentin Zhukovski's able and original article on 'Umar Khayyám and the “Wandering” Quatrains. This article, written in Russian, appeared in the Festschrift published to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Baron Victor Rosen's tenure of the Arabic Professorship at the University of St. Petersburg, and was entitled, in allusion to his Christian name, al-Mudhaffariyya (“the Victorious”). Seeing that in Western Europe Russian is even less read than Persian, it is a most fortunate circumstance that that talented Orientalist Dr. E. Denison Ross, now Principal of the Muhammadan Madrasa at Calcutta, translated this very important article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1898 (vol. xxx, pp. 349-366); and subsequently reproduced its most important results in a more popular form in the Introduction (“on the Life and Times of 'Umar Khayyám”) which he prefixed to Messrs. Methuen's edition of FitzGerald's rendering of the Rubá'iyyát, with a commentary by Mrs. H. M. Batson, published in 1900.

The notices of 'Umar given by Zhukovski in the original, with Russian translation, and by Ross in English, are, four from books composed in the thirteenth century of our era, one of the fourteenth, and one of the fifteenth and one of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth, the two latter being inserted, in spite of their late date, on account of their intrinsic interest. Many others from late biographers might be added to this list, but most of them do but repeat, and generally embellish or distort, their sources. It is worth remarking, however, that 'Awfí, the author of the oldest biography of Persian poets, the Lubálu'l-Albáb (early thirteenth century), does not so much as mention 'Umar Khayyám; while even Dawlatsháh (who completed his book in A.D. 1487) does not accord him a separate notice, but merely mentions him incidentally (p. 138 of my edition) in speaking of his descendant, Sháhfúr-i-Ashharí.

The oldest reference to him, after the two cited from the Chahár Maqála on pp. 247-8 supra, appears to be that contained The Mirṣádu'l­'Ibád. in the Mirṣádu'l-'Ibád, or “Observatory of God's Servants,” composed in A.D. 1223 by Najmu'd-Dín Rází (Zhukovski, loc. cit., pp. 341-2; Ross, loc. cit., pp. 361-2), and its importance, as Zhukovski points out, lies in the fact that the author, a fervent Ṣúfí mystic, speaks of 'Umar as “an unhappy philosopher, atheist and materialist,” adducing in proof of this assertion two of his quatrains, the first expressing his complete agnosticism, the second reproaching the Creator for suffering His imperfect creatures to exist, or His perfect creatures to perish (Whin-field, No. 126), which quatrains, says Najmu'd-Dín, demonstrate “the height of confusion and error.”

The next notice occurs in al-Qifṭí's History of the Philosophers (pp. 243-4 of Dr. Julius Lippert's recent edition, Leipzig,

Al-Qifṭí's Ta'rí­khu'l-Ḥukamá. 1903), a work composed in Arabic in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. This notice was published, with a French translation, by Woepcke in his L'Algèbre d'Omar Alkhayyámí (Paris, 1851, pp. v-vi of Preface and 52 of text); and again by Zhukovski (loc. cit., pp. 333-335) with a Russian translation; while an English rendering is given by Ross (loc. cit., pp. 354-5). 'Umar is here represented as a champion of Greek learning, i.e., Philosophy, of which the great mystic, Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí says in his Mathnawí:—

“How long, how long [will ye talk of] the Philosophy of the
Greeks?
Study also the Philosophy of those of the Faith.”

“The later Ṣúfís,” says al-Qifṭí, “have found themselves in agreement with some part of the apparent sense of his verse, and have transferred it to their system, and discussed it in their assemblies and private gatherings; though its inward meanings are to the [Ecclesiastical] Law stinging serpents, and combinations rife with malice.” Here also, in short, he is represented as “without an equal in astronomy and philo­sophy,” but as an advanced freethinker, constrained only by prudential motives to bridle his tongue. The notice concludes with the citation of four of 'Umar's Arabic verses from a poem of which six verses (three of these four and three others) are quoted in the work next to be mentioned.

The Nuzhatu'l-Arwáḥ (“Recreation of Souls”) of ash-Shahrazúrí was also compiled in the thirteenth century, and ash-Shahrazúrí's Nuzhatu'l­Arwáḥ. exists both in an Arabic and a Persian version. The notice of 'Umar which it contains is printed in both versions at pp. 327-329 of Zhukovski's article. He translates the Persian into Russian, while Ross in his English translation follows the Arabic. Each version quotes verses by him in the language in which it is written. The Persian version cites the quatrains numbered 193 and 230 in Whinfield, while the Arabic cites three fragments of his Arabic verse, the first containing four, the second six, and the third three couplets. The second of these three pieces is the same from which a shorter extract is given in the work last mentioned. Shahrazúrí's account is a good deal fuller than Al-Qifṭí's. It describes 'Umar as a follower of Avicenna, but ill-tempered and inhospitable, and mentions the titles of two of his philosophical works otherwise unknown. His memory is stated to have been so good that, having read a certain book seven times through at Iṣfahán, he afterwards wrote it out almost word for word at Níshápúr. His knowledge of Arabic philology and the seven readings of the Qur'án was remark­able. He was disliked by the great theologian Abú Ḥámid Muḥammad al-Ghazálí, who conversed with him on at least one occasion, and, it is said, by Sanjar, but was held in high honour by Maliksháh. Immediately before his death he was reading in the Shifá of Avicenna the chapter treating of the One and the Many, and his last words were: “O God! Verily I have striven to know Thee according to the range of my powers, therefore forgive me, for indeed such know­ledge of Thee as I possess is my [only] means of approach to Thee.”

The next notice in point of time is that occurring in al-Qazwíní's Átháru'l-'Bilád (“Monuments of Countries”), s.v. Níshápúr, p. 318 of Wüstenfeld's edition. Here also 'Umar is described as “versed in all kinds of philosophy, especially Al-Qazwíní's Átháru'l Bilád. mathematics,” and as favoured by Sulṭán Malik-sháh. He is also credited with the invention of clay scare-crows, and an account is given of the method which he once adopted to cover with shame and confusion a certain theologian who, while denouncing him from the pulpit as a freethinker and atheist, used privately to come to him early in the morning to take lessons in philosophy.