38. The Ruba‘iyat of Abu Sa‘id ibn Abu’! Khayr. 
Edited by Mavtavi ‘Aspp’un Watt. 
PREFACE. 
poetry. Like Mathnawi and Ghazal, Ruba‘i, too, owes its origin 
to the genius and character of the Persians. Known by various 
hames, e.g., Du-bayti and Tarana, the term Ruba‘i (quatrain) is 
one that is now exclusively used in preference to others. 
hile a host of writers have written on the life of the 
Astronomer-Poet of Nishapir, and his quatrains have been 
diligently collected, wherever they could be found, very little has 
been done with regard to the Ruba‘iyat of Shaykh Abu Sa‘id ib 
Abu’l Khayr.. We are indebted to Dr. Hermann Ethé, who in 
1875 and 1878 published with metrical German translations, in the 
Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und historishen 
Classe derk. Akademik der Wissenschaften zu Miinchen, a few 
quatrains of Abu Sa‘id, which he extr i 
biographical works. These quatrains are more or less defective 
remaining manuscript (O. (a) 62) with which are bound some 
other manuscripts. I have also consulted a few available 
Tadhkiras and Dr. Ethé’s extracts, and have removed so far as 
possible the errors that were detected. The manuscript of the 
ciety is, on the whole, not only very beautifully and carefully 
written, but most accurately and intelligently prepared. 
Of the author of the Ruba‘tyat I wish to say only a few 
Words, as I reserve for a future occasion a prose translation in 
English of these celebrated quatrains, with notes and an account 
