I was looking at Google's history for today and saw that right near the beginning of the list how on this day in 1079, Omar Khayyam and other astronomers are traditionally said to have presented what has come to be called the Iranian or Persian calendar to the Sultan Jalaaldin Malik Shah I. For me just seeing his name fired a cascade of memories, particularly of my long gone youth, while working in Holmes Book Company in Oakland, California. Sitting on my lunch break, eating those terrible little self-contained packets of stale crackers and cheese whiz while reading Edward FitzGerald's version of the Rubaiyat. Sadly, I can't think of Khayyam or his interpreter Fitzgerald without smelling that cheese.
Nonetheless this poet, astronomer, and many believe, and I'm sure, Sufi, remains an important part of my formative spiritual exploration.
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.
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