Misc

A wonderful documentary for a unique man

Thanks for posting.

Dear yolanda

Thank you so much for your kind words

To be honest, most of the stuff that we talked about in the other blog, is right below in my second comment

If you have any other questions, please let me know

Tks, And Take Care :)

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Dear PT,

     Thank you for loading the 8 poetry videos. Too bad IC deleted the comments from the other thread 2-3 hours ago.....IC resurrected this thread, but deleted the comments from the other thread with the 8 poetry videos....it is like life...you win some, you lose some....I hope IC will feature other poets in the future.

thanks,

Dear Friends

Please enjoy these videos:

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Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 1

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 2

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 3

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahamd Shamlou) # 4

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 5

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 6

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 7

Khayyam Poetry (Voice Of Ahmad Shamlou) # 8

*   *   *   *   *  

Thanks To eurobaluchi1 for these videos :)

خاله موشه جان،

                         
 کلیپ خیلی قشنگی بود، من تا حالا از وجود این گروه خبر نداشتم. مرسی خانمی

این غافله عمر عجب میگذرد

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO5mAsHzR94

Dear Yolanda

Having grapes is no fun!

You should let Omar be your guide and have a full bodied Shiraz, in my humble opinion.

Whatever you decide, I wish you health and prosperity in any case.

slainté! 

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Hi khaleh mosheh,

     Thank you for the info. You cracked me up..... I heard drinking moderately is good for your heart.....I will just eat grapes instead 'cause I can have the same benefits without the alcohol content..O:)

Thank you!

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Hi! Choghok,

     Thank you for your post and comments...thank you for your input....I discovered this video several months ago, it talks about wine/alcohol smuggling business carried out by Iranian Kurds....I was shocked & saddened by their poverty, but inspired by their endurance and great sense of humor......at 2:32, the Kurdish guy said " Everyone drinks, they all love it, even the mullahs, they are the first!" ....it just cracked me up...... but I am not quite sure if it is really true:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkL91MFMJPg

I watched the Jeopardy show several months ago, the final contest question says that Kurds are the biggest ethnic group in the world without a country...there are 25 million Kurds worldwide. Hopefully life becomes easier and better for them.

Thanks,

I hear medical historians

postulate that Khayyam died of liver failure based on the available historical data. As for the cause of his liver failure, presumably the clues are in the body of his work...

Any way its been a long night for me- I'm off to have a nightcap. Actually on second thought I will just take the bottle to bed...

yolanda

What it says in Islam and what muslims actually do is 2 different things, if they were the same thing then islamic countries would run like a clock (I would not say a beautiful clock though).

Drinking alcohol is done in all islamic countries, King Fahad himself was according to historians alcoholic and needed a whiskey bottle under his bed.

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Here is the excerpt from wikipedia:

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Despite strong Islamic training, there have been widely divergent views on Khayyám. According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr no other Iranian writer/scholar is viewed in such extremely differing ways. At one end of the spectrum there are night clubs named after Khayyám and he is seen as a agnostic hedonist. On the other end of the spectrum, he is seen as a mystical Sufi poet influenced by platonic traditions.

Robertson (1914) believes that Omar Khayyám himself was undevout and had no sympathy with popular religion,[22] but the verse: "Enjoy wine and women and don't be afraid, God has compassion," suggests that he wasn't an atheist.

which translates in FitzGerald's work as:

And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press,

End in the Nothing all Things end in — Yes —

Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what

Thou shalt be — Nothing — Thou shalt not be less.

A more literal translation could read:

If with wine you are drunk be happy,

If seated with a moon-faced (beautiful), be happy,

Since the end purpose of the universe is nothing-ness;

Hence picture your nothing-ness, then while you are, be happy!

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Wow! A lot of wine related verses!

yolanda

yadesh be khayre

این غافله عمر عجب میگذارد               دریاب دامی كه با طرب میگذارد
ساقی غم فردای رقیبان چه خوری       پیش آر پیاله را كه شب میگذارد
خیلی با رباعیات خیام حال کردیم. با دوستان شب شعر خیام داشتیم و خیلی لذت میبردیم، یادش به خیر.
می خور كه ز تو کثرت غلت ببرد           اندیشه هفتاد دو ملت ببرد
یاد یک قطعه دیگه افتادم كه میگه
من بی می ناب زیستن نتوانم             بی باده کشیده بار تن نتوانم
من بنده آن دمم كه ساقی گوید          یگ جام دگر بگیر من نتوانم
ممنون از این پست.

Khayyam was far from uncertain

Like the rest of the documenaties done by the Iranian staff of the BBC Persian, Sadegh Saba being one, this one is not free fr om its share of bias and error. Khayyam, of all poets and thinkers, was dead certain of his convictions - a fatalist to the core. He was the Godfather of certitude, true to his mathematical spirit (remember those days we didn't know of quantum mechanics!). He was more of a believer in fate and pre-determined destiny than even Hafez. The BBC Persian have obviously not heard of his most celebrated quatrain (in the west):

FR

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Dear Passing Through,

    Thank you soooo much for your post! I read somewhere that Khayyam's mentality was that enjoy your life, drink.....and if there is God, He will be compassionate enough to forgive you anyway.....

     Thank you so much for your clarification. I am glad that IC posted the video....hopefully we will see more educational videos like this in the future.

thanks,

yolanda 

Dear yolanda

The Philosophy of Omar Khayyam primarily focused on the fact of living in here and now

As others have alluded to, he was not sure of the situation after we die; ie. whether there was going to be an after-life  or not

Consequently, he was encouraging everyone to live life to the fullest in here and now, and not miss out on things in the hopes that one day we may, or may not, experience heaven

His references to drinking Wine (Alcohol) not only embraced Wine itself, but also to all other activities  that were  banned (because of being sinful) by Religion

Omar Khayyam was truly a World-Wide figure .. His thoughts and philosophy resonate deeply within all of us even after  800 years following his death  

I hope that has clarified things for you :)

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Hi  choghok,

Thank you for your post. You said that Muslims drink heavily. Are you talking about Iranian muslims living in Iran or outside Iran?I thought alchohols are banned in Iran; drinking is considered to be a sin.....

It sounds like Khayyam was an agnostic, not completely atheist.

thanks,

Fabulous post Ghormeh Sabzi jan!

Thanks for your time in finding us such great material. I know I'm missing lots on the Net. So glad we have you here!

If you're ever in Northern CA, I'd love to cook you some ghormeh sabzi (Tehrani and Torki styles - have limited repertoire) as a tiny token of appreciation for your energy invested on this site.   

No Yolanda

Almost all Muslims drink, most of them heavily and more than Atheists. I do not believe he was Atheist. An atheist believes in nothing so to say, they say there exist nothing more than we see and feel. Khayyam was a seeker, he did not say he had an answer. He did not support the idea of classical Islam with heaven or hell, nor did he thought that those who were atheists were right.

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I noticed that Khayyam's poems talked about drinking wine a lot.....is that because he was an atheist?

ThANKS GS!

for this documentary series. I really enjoyed it. 

Payandeh IRAN & Iranians 

Thank you G.S.

I think the reason he lost to Hafez in popularity in Iran is because he was an atheist.  Just a thought.

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Thank you for this very educational video. I watched all the segments. Khayyam's Rubiyat landed on commemorative postage stamp:

//jeff560.tripod.com/images/omar6.jpg

//jeff560.tripod.com/images/omar7.jpg

//jeff560.tripod.com/images/omar4.jpg

//jeff560.tripod.com/images/omar3.jpg

//jeff560.tripod.com/images/omar1.jpg

It is amazing that he was able to make contributions in Math, Poetry, and Astronomy. He was truly a polymath. Too bad that the Pascal Triangle is not named after Khayyam. Khayyam discovered the binomial formula way before the French guy, Pascal. Khayyam also has a 13,000 member fan club in Facebook, but he lost to Hafez, who has 66,000 fans in Facebook. 

thanks,

Dear G.S.

I am absolutely delighted by this wonderful series

A couple of weeks ago, there was another delightful blog  by Yari Ostovany regarding a series of videos by the Great Ahmad Shamlou while he was at U.C. Berkeley, back in 1990, for a conference

I am really glad that Jahanshah has taken upon himself to feature such Quality Blogs

Please Keep Up Your Good Work In Locating These Gems

Tks, And Best Of Luck To You :)

I did a better research for my high school work!

Khayyams contribution to Mathematcis was more than told here, he invented something that is called binomial theorem or pascals triangle and he also solved some algebraic equations that were unsolvable before him.

His poetry is also much more than wine and having fun. The one thing that I think is sad is that according to what I read about him, his last wish was to be burried beneath 4 trees that would flower in different seasons, so his tombstone would be hidden beneath flowers all year, instead they put a gian artistic dildo on top of his grave. 

He was also chased by conservatives in his time like moderates and thinkers are chased by IRI and mullahs today.

A gem indeed!

A gem indeed!

Fabulous

Wonderful documentary about an amazing man with wide open eyes and mind.

PS: JD will have fun with this one :)))

This BBC Documentary is AN ABSOLUTE GEM !

I saw this the other night on the BBC and was truly amazed by the quality of Sadegh Saba's research.

I very much enjoyed another documentary he did on Persian Aechemenid Kings which was equally well done.

Thank You Gormeh Sabzi for sharing this wonderful documentary with us.

DK

PS: Recommended Readings:

Khayyam with popcorn: Persian poet in the eyes of Hollywood By Darius KADIVAR