.jpg "A poster for the new version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which was calligarphed by Abbas Akhavein")
TEHRAN -- A new version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam has recently been published in Iran.
This version has been inscribed by veteran calligrapher Abbas Akhavein based on a collection of Khayyam’s quatrains, which have been compiled by Persian literature expert Mazaher Mosaffa.
The collection was unveiled during a ceremony at the Iranian Artists Forum in Tehran on Sunday.
“The calligraphy for the book was completed about ten years ago, but its publication was postponed until today,” Akhavein said during the ceremony.
Master calligrapher Ali Marzi, Bokhara literary magazine chief editor Ali Dehbashi, publisher Mohammad-Ali Sahranavard, and a number of artists and literati attended the ceremony.
“After the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the bestselling English book,” Dehbashi said.
“The calligraphy of Abbas Akhavein and a preface that Mazaher Mosaffa wrote for the book have added more value to it,” he added.
Marzi also delivered a short speech at the meeting.
“As the verbal history of the contemporary Persian calligraphy, Akhavein began his career in calligraphy in his youth and has matured into a prominent calligrapher over time,” he said.
“He began calligraphy in a period of time during which calligraphers like Hassan Zarrinkhat and Hossein Mirkhani were shining,” he added.
“We and the future generation should be proud of Akhavein for the efforts he has made to inscribe Persian works like Rumi’s Masnavi-ye Manavi and the Divan of Hafez,” he stated.
Sahranavard said, “We were suffering from the lack of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the book market, because the book is the most popular work in Persian classical literature after the Divan of Hafez.”
Akhavein autographed some copies of the book for readers at the end of the ceremony.
According to Amazon, Edward FitzGerald’s English translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the bestselling English poetry anthology of all time.
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