No More Learning

"'One of the greatest of the wise men of Khorassan was the Imam
Mowaffak of Naishapur, a man highly honored and reverenced,--may God
rejoice his soul; his illustrious years exceeded eighty-five, and it
was the universal belief that every boy who read the Koran or studied
the traditions in his presence, would assuredly attain to honor and
happiness. For this cause did my father send me from Tus to Naishapur
with Abd-us-samad, the doctor of law, that I might employ myself in
study and learning under the guidance of that illustrious teacher.
Towards me he ever turned an eye of favor and kindness, and as his
pupil I felt for him extreme affection and devotion, so that I passed
four years in his service. When I first came there, I found two other
pupils of mine own age newly arrived, Hakim Omar Khayyam, and the ill-
fated Ben Sabbah. Both were endowed with sharpness of wit and the
highest natural powers; and we three formed a close friendship
together. When the Imam rose from his lectures, they used to join me,
and we repeated to each other the lessons we had heard. Now Omar was
a native of Naishapur, while Hasan Ben Sabbah's father was one Ali, a
man of austere life and practise, but heretical in his creed and
doctrine. One day Hasan said to me and to Khayyam, "It is a universal
belief that the pupils of the Imam Mowaffak will attain to fortune.
Now, even if we all do not attain thereto, without doubt one of us
will; what then shall be our mutual pledge and bond? " We answered,
"Be it what you please. " "Well," he said, "let us make a vow, that to
whomsoever this fortune falls, he shall share it equally with the
rest, and reserve no pre-eminence for himself. " "Be it so," we both
replied, and on those terms we mutually pledged our words. Years
rolled on, and I went from Khorassan to Transoxiana, and wandered to
Ghazni and Cabul; and when I returned, I was invested with office, and
rose to be administrator of affairs during the Sultanate of Sultan Alp
Arslan. '

"He goes on to state, that years passed by, and both his old school-
friends found him out, and came and claimed a share in his good
fortune, according to the school-day vow. The Vizier was generous and
kept his word.
Hasan demanded a place in the government, which the
Sultan granted at the Vizier's request; but discontented with a
gradual rise, he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental
court, and, failing in a base attempt to supplant his benefactor, he
was disgraced and fell. After many mishaps and wanderings, Hasan
became the head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians,--a party of
fanatics who had long murmured in obscurity, but rose to an evil
eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will. In A. D.
1090, he seized the castle of Alamut, in the province of Rudbar, which
lies in the mountainous tract south of the Caspian Sea; and it was
from this mountain home he obtained that evil celebrity among the
Crusaders as the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS, and spread terror through
the Mohammedan world; and it is yet disputed where the word Assassin,
which they have left in the language of modern Europe as their dark
memorial, is derived from the hashish, or opiate of hemp-leaves (the
Indian bhang), with which they maddened themselves to the sullen pitch
of oriental desperation, or from the name of the founder of the
dynasty, whom we have seen in his quiet collegiate days, at Naishapur.
One of the countless victims of the Assassin's dagger was Nizam ul
Mulk himself, the old school-boy friend. [1]

"Omar Khayyam also came to the Vizier to claim his share; but not to
ask for title or office. 'The greatest boon you can confer on me,' he
said, 'is to let me live in a corner under the shadow of your fortune,
to spread wide the advantages of Science, and pray for your long life
and prosperity. ' The Vizier tells us, that when he found Omar was
really sincere in his refusal, he pressed him no further, but granted
him a yearly pension of 1200 mithkals of gold from the treasury of
Naishapur.

"At Naishapur thus lived and died Omar Khayyam, 'busied,' adds the
Vizier, 'in winning knowledge of every kind, and especially in
Astronomy, wherein he attained to a very high pre-eminence. Under the
Sultanate of Malik Shah, he came to Merv, and obtained great praise
for his proficiency in science, and the Sultan showered favors upon
him. '

"When the Malik Shah determined to reform the calendar, Omar was one
of the eight learned men employed to do it; the result was the Jalali
era (so called from Jalal-ud-din, one of the king's names)--'a
computation of time,' says Gibbon, 'which surpasses the Julian, and
approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style. ' He is also the
author of some astronomical tables, entitled 'Ziji-Malikshahi,' and
the French have lately republished and translated an Arabic Treatise
of his on Algebra.

"His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyam) signifies a Tent-maker, and
he is said to have at one time exercised that trade, perhaps before
Nizam-ul-Mulk's generosity raised him to independence. Many Persian
poets similarly derive their names from their occupations; thus we
have Attar, 'a druggist,' Assar, 'an oil presser,' etc. [2] Omar
himself alludes to his name in the following whimsical lines:--

"'Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned;
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!