The Study of Omar Khayyam’s Status in Egypt based on the Arabic Translations of his Quatrains

Omar Khayyam is the most famous Persian poet in the Arab world. His quatrains have been translated into Arabic more than ninety times. No other Persian poet in any times has ever received so much attention. It is believed that Nezam -ud-Dīn- Isfahani, one of the well-known judges of Isfahan in 13th century, translated one of Khayyam's quatrains into Arabic for the first time. Thus, he is known to be the first translator of Khayyam's quatrains. Six centuries later, when Khayyam was quite well-known across the globe, Arab translators started to translate his quatrains into Arabic. These translations were both in prose and verse. Ali Kazem Al-Haj Hasan (1935- ), also known as Ali Fat'tal, is the last Arab translator of Khayyam's quatrains. He has translated 200 quatrains into Arabic verse. In so doing, he excluded the Persian quatrains in his book.