10 h 2 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the wine cup holds a question about eternity?
The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam gathers four-line poems attributed to the Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet. Each holds a single thought, inviting you to pause rather than hurry onward. Across poems on wine, passing time and doubt, the speaker asks what life offers when pleasure fades and death remains.
This collection reads the quatrains through the Sufi tradition, the mystical current of Islam that seeks union with the divine. In that reading, the cup, the cupbearer and the tavern become signs of spiritual longing. Roses fade, kings leave dust behind, and caravans move on: concrete images open questions about mortality, faith and the hope of something beyond.
What you’ll discover
- Four lines, one thought Discover short poems that give a single thought room to linger.
- Wine and spiritual longing Explore how a Sufi reading finds longing for the divine in the cup and tavern.
- Time you can see Meet fading roses and passing caravans that bring life's brevity close.
- Questions without easy comfort Follow a speaker who asks about our origins, our destination and the pain of living.
- Pleasure beside eternity Sit with poems that place earthly pleasure beside the hope of something beyond.
Who will love it
For readers who love short poems, Persian culture, and questions about mortality and faith, or enjoy exploring wine, pleasure and spiritual longing through Sufi mysticism.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A mathematician writes four-line poems
- Wine may mean more than wine
- Life is short, so live awake
- Doubt, the potter, and the great questions
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Die sufistischen Vierzeiler von Omar Chajjām
by Omar Chajjam
A cup of wine becomes a sign of spiritual longing in poems that explore time, death and the hope of the divine.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A mathematician writes four-line poems
Khayyam is best known in his own age as a scientist. He worked on algebra and on the calendar, and he served rulers who valued learning. Poetry was, for him, a private side of life. The quatrains attributed to him came down over centuries, and scholars still argue about which ones he truly wrote.
The form matters here. A quatrain, or rubai, usually rhymes in a pattern where the first, second and fourth lines share a sound and the third stands apart. That third line often turns the thought, and the last line lands it. So each poem works like a small argument or a sudden image that closes with a snap.
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What is The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam about?
It is a collection of short four-line poems on the brevity of life, wine, doubt and the search for the divine. Read through Sufi mysticism, wine and the tavern stand for spiritual love.
What does wine mean in Omar Khayyam's poetry?
On the surface it means pleasure and escape from care. In the Sufi reading, wine stands for divine love and the loss of the proud self. Many readers hold both meanings in mind at once.
What is a quatrain or rubai?
A rubai is a Persian poem of four lines. The first, second and fourth lines usually rhyme, while the third stands apart. Each poem holds one complete thought, often with a turn near the end.
The author
Omar Khayyam
1048–1131 · Persian mathematician and poet
Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. He was born and died in Nishapur, in present-day Iran, and also worked in Samarkand and Isfahan. He wrote about algebra in the eleventh century and helped reform the Persian calendar. Quatrains attributed to him were later collected as the Rubaiyat.
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