The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
Unknown Year Tahrir Iran Co. Akbar Tajvidi Edition - The Quatrains of Abolfat' H Ghia'th-e-Din Ebrahim Khayam of Nishabur

This Iranian edition from the Tahrir Iran Co., with illustrations from Akbar Tajvidi contains five different translations: English, Persian/Farsi, French, German (sans 8 quatrains), and Arabic. Fitzgerald’s is used for the English tranaslations, and due to that, it is limited to 75 quatrains. The publishers’ foreward explains in detail their reasoning and choices.

Due to its multiple translations, the book orientation seems…flexible. I can’t confirm since I can’t read Arabic, but the book seems to be right to left for it. Both sides seems to have a title page and the important content. The numbering increases from right to left, but the non-Arabic content proceeds normally left to right. The table of contents seems to be backwards from the left-to-right perspective. So last in the order is the first you experience if reading from left to right. It is very confusing for me to parse out. I am guessing the Persian text is alongside all the other translations even though it should also be from right to left from my understanding…

It is similar to this spiral-bound edition in that there are multiple translations of the text within it. More analysis needed to compare them.

If anyone can provide more clarity on this copy or the non-English parts, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Entry update history:

• Update 11/2020: Tweaked line about the book jacket cover, now that I have better understanding of Gaylord and what is going on with the jacket itself.
• Update 04/2022: Revamped the page to be of the new layout, added new pictures, and added more metadata that I was able to discern from the book on subsequent review. This book was/is hard for me to follow, I think due to it being able to be read from multiple directions and having multiple translations of the same text/it not being exactly built English-first.
• Update 04/2026: Big rewording/reexplanation based on a closer reading of the publishers’ foreward. I also removed the 1955 year estimate that I had based on a penciled in year since there’s nothing justifying it. And added some more pictures.