Intoxicating Rhymes & Sobering Wine
A Documentary about the life and times of Khayyam
Featuring Iraj Anvar as Khayyam
This educational documentary is about the life and times of Khayyam (خیام), the famed 11th-century Persian mathematician and astronomer.
Although today Khayyam is better known as a poet, during his lifetime he was known mainly for his achievements in the sciences and mathematics. The earliest references to his poetry come centuries after his death, when poetry attributed to him begins to appear in historical sources.
Khayyam achieved great fame as a poet after he was introduced to the Western world by Edward Fitzgerald, an English poet who anonymously published an English rendition of Khayyam's poetry titled "The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam" in 1859. The Rubaiyyat became a literary sensation, particularly in England and North America, and influenced and inspired many great literary minds of the Western world such as Ezra Pound, Mark Twain, and T.S. Eliot, to name a few.
Ironically, we have come to know Khayyam almost exclusively on the basis of the poetry attributed to him, the majority of which cannot be substantiated as his work.
Furthermore, our knowledge of the historical Khayyam is fragmentary. Each successive generation after Khayyam has made literal, metaphorical, and symbolic interpretations of his poetry and has reinvented Khayyam's image and message to fit and serve its own political and intellectual ambitions and aspirations.
Through interpretation of his poetry, Khayyam has been labeled a Sufi, mystic, atheist, nationalist, warrior, and devout orthodox Muslim, all in one breath. In the absence of more evidence, the historical Khayyam is a lost figure whose accurate reconstruction is unlikely.
It is astonishing that centuries after his death, we have not lost our fascination with Khayyam and his poetry. What motivates and drives our interest in him is as mystifying as the man himself.
This documentary reexamines Khayyam's life, work and poetry, and attempts to identify the reasons behind our intellectual preoccupation with his poetry and message.
Written & Directed by Majeed Beenteha
www.beenteha.com
Notice:
The producer has received no financing or support from any government agency, cultural organizations, media organizations, or an individual donor. This is an independent film. The producer has no association or affiliation with any group or particular individual political, social or religious group. The opinions expressed in this film are based on interviews with scholars and scholarly research work. Therefore, the opinions
expressed in this film do not represent that of the producer/director.
If you wish to support the director's work, you can do so by purchasing a copy of this DVD from his website @
www.beenteha.com
The director has composed 11 original music tracks based on Khayyams poetry that have been produced under two CDs titled: Plugged into Khayyam Volume I & II.
to listen to these tracks you can visit.
www.myspace.com/beenteha
www.beenteha.com
You can download and listen to the MP3s for free. If you like the work and would like to show your support, you can purchase legal copies of CDs or pay 99 cent per MP3 download. To purchase you can visit any of these sites:
www.beenteha.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/majeedbeenteha/from/payplay
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/majeedbeenteha2
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Iran Khayyam Part 8 of 8 Intoxicating Rhymes&Sobering Wine A Documentary about Khayyam Persian Poetby majeedbeenteha496 views
The first part of the video about poem, music and song is very beautiful
farifalaki 3 weeks ago
very nice music choice
IRANisPERSIA1 1 year ago
The music choice is not as interesting as the documentary itself, even quite annoying.
aehtenap 1 year ago