Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/54

xxx begotten, and is ruled absolutely by One Absolute Power."

Hammer compares him to Voltaire, but in reality he is a Voltaire and something more. He has much of Voltaire's flippancy and irreverence. His treatment of the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, for instance, which Muhammad took from Christianity, and travestied by the embellishments he added to it, is altogether in Voltaire's manner. And his insistence on the all importance of kindness and charity recalls the better side of Voltaire's character, viz., his kindness to Calas, and the other victims of ecclesiastical persecution. But Omar also possessed, what Voltaire did not, strong religious emotions, which at times overrode his rationalism, and found expression in those devotional and Mystical quatrains, which offer such a strong contrast to the rest of his poetry.

This introduction is already longer than I intended. but I must not omit to acknowledge my obligations to former editors and tranlators—mr. Blockmann, M. Nicholas, Mr. Fitzgerald and Herr Bodenstedt, to all of whom I am indebted for many hints. I have also derived much assistance from articles on Omar in the Calcutta Review, vol xxx., and in Fraser for May 1879. I have also to thank Professor Cowell for kindly lending me some of the materials for the text, and Dr. Ethé and M. Fagnan for information about the MSS. of Omar in London, Oxford and Paris.