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I would never have thought of reading the Rubaiyat except that a friend, who has great fondness for  it, has given me this copy. By chance we found that we both had an interest in the same passage.
 
Omar Khayyam was a Persian astronomer, mathematician and poet, living from 1048 to 1131. This free translation of his verses by Edward Fitzgerald was published in 1859, apparently attracting absolutely no interest. However later editions became wildly popular and contributed to late Victorian and Edwardian orientalist movements. That sounds interesting, and I’m hoping I will learn more about how and why it happened.