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Abd al-Rahman III
Abd al-Rahman III was an Umayyad prince who reigned as Emir of Cordoba, and later Caliph of Cordoba, from 912 to 961 CE. His reign is remembered as a golden age of Muslim Spain and Umayyad rule, epitomized by his declaration of the second...
Definition
Abd al-Rahman I
Abd al-Rahman was the founder of the Emirate of Cordoba and ruled as Abd al-Rahman I from 756-788 CE. As one of the lone survivors of the Umayyad Dynasty after the Abbasids defeated the Umayyad Caliphate, Abd al-Rahman bridged the Umayyad...
Definition
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (also given as Umar Khayyam, l. 1048-1131 CE) was a Persian polymath, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher but is best known in the West as a poet, the author of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. His famous work has been embraced...
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Omar Khayyam
Statue of Omar Khayyam (l. 1048-1131 CE) in the Persian Scholar Pavilion in Vienna, donated by Iran.
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The Court of Abd al-Rahman III
Abd al-Rahman III Receiving the Ambassador by Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer (1862–1943 CE). Oil on canvas, 1885 CE.
University of Barcelona
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Statue of Abd al-Rahman I
A modern statue of Abd al-Rahman I, founder of the Emirate of Cordoba, r. 756-788 CE. Almuñécar, Spain.
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Early 20th-century CE edition of the Rubaiyat.
Article
Ten Great Persian Poets
Persian literature derives from a long oral tradition of poetic storytelling. The first recorded example of this tradition is the Behistun Inscription of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE), carved on a cliff-face c. 522 BCE during the period...
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald's Version
I first read Edward Fitzgerald’s celebrated, if controversial, version of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat when I happened upon it in my father’s extensive library when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School. I have since read it countless time...
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The Emirate of Cordoba
A map showing the territory of the Emirate of Cordoba in 929 CE under the reign of Abd al-Rahman III. The Emirate was founded by Abd al-Rahman I (r. 756-788 CE).