Samarkand

Sempre dava uma revirada nos meus olhinhos quando, entre 2015 e 2018, via algum meme sobre como os historiadores iam explicar no futuro o que aconteceu no Brasil naquele período, quem diria isso não tinha o mínimo de perspectiva histórica do mundo e nem do próprio Brasil, já aconteceram reiteradas vezes coisas mais complexas desde sempre, pega qualquer pedaço de história da Roma Antiga ou da Pérsia e verás.
A TAG desse mês enviou um livro que se constrói como ficção histórica através da história do Irã, metade do livro se passa no período em que viveu Omar Khayyam (Samarcanda é o nome da cidade em que nasceu) e em que nasceu a famosa ordem xiita dos assassinos. Fazendo uma elipse temporal gigantesca, ruma-se na show more segunda metade para a virada do século XIX para o XX, em que a história da Pérsia ainda está numa repetição infinita do espéculo da Idade Média, com golpe político atrás de golpe político.
Ficção histórica não é o tipo de livro que usualmente pego pra ler, mas gosto em geral deles, especialmente quando têm essa coisa tão viva adequada aos acontecimentos históricos, na segunda metade o protagonista estava tão bem enquadrado quanto o Indiana Jones em seus filmes, que, pra variar, também perdeu uma relíquia histórica para as forças das circunstâncias. show less

A mildly disappointing book! As there are 24 reviews already here I won't precis it but assume that the reader is familiar with the storyline. The best thing about this book is that because I don't know much about the histories it is set against, there is a sense of wonder... is this a true thing that happened? I have a bunch of things to go and look up and learn about. That is great! But the story, well, Omar Khayyam's story was alright, but Benjamin's story is odd. There's a lot of Orientalism there, its the story of three Western men who try to save Iran. Its kind of patriarchal too, especially the second part where the women are just foils or plot devices or completely invisible. The story kind of fades out and into a bit about the show more Titanic that is really a bit lame. Woman has intuition, titanic sinks, book is lost, women disappears. The loss of the book and the disappearance of the woman are kind of interlinked; was it a dream? Did either ever exist? It's supposed to be deep but it's pretty lame really. Finally, this is a work of translation and so its hard to know if the original was a work of great literary beauty or not. The language is perfectly adequate but there's no poetry. Even the poetry is suspicious, did Khayyam's work really rhyme in English? Of course not, its been translated in tone and surely has lost something! On the whole this book is OK but I was expecting something more! show less

I first discovered Amin Maalouf soon after he published his first novel, Leo Africanus, in the early 1990s. I returned to him only last year when I read The First Century After Beatrice. I was not impressed. I have now finished Samarkand. Again, I am unimpressed. Samarkand is really two books tied by the slimmest of threads. The first half is the story of the life of Omar Khayyam and the composition of the Rubaiyaat; the second half is a highly abbreviated retelling of the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 (it is done very selectively, though it is a fascinating story). Maalouf links to stories through an invented American protagonist who “rediscovers” Khayyam’s original manuscript and attempts to preserve it by show more taking it out of the country by taking it aboard...wait for it…the Titanic. The only link between story 1 and story 2 is the manuscript: part 1 tells about its creation and places it in context, though the story is far more focused on Khayyam’s life than on the text. Part 2 recounts the manuscript’s “rediscovery and loss. Maalouf is a wonderful writer; his prose is easy to read, fluid, and compelling. But Samarkand doesn’t repay the time it takes to read in any substantial way. Or, perhaps a bit more precisely, it’s a “beach read.” By that I mean it’s entertaining, enjoyable reading but nothing more. Both stories are absorbing, although the second is a bit too abridged, since Maalouf only uses it as a frame to link his own inventions. Since I have several more of his books, I suspect I’ll give Maalouf another shot one of these days…but I can’t say I’m optimistic. show less

The narrator tells the story of Omar Khayyam's own manuscript of his rubaiyat in two parts, the first focussing on Khayyam's life and the first century of the Seljuk empire and the second on Persia in the late 19th and pre-WWI 20th centuries when the country was subject to the machinations of Britain and Russia, both determined that democracy should not take root there.

Both parts were fascinating and given the events of the last few days an unexpectedly timely read.

Edward Fitzgerald's Victorian-era translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyaat profoundly influenced the West's perception (or misperception) of Persia. Lebanese author Maalouf tries to set the record straight in this fictional history of Omar's personal manuscript copy of the famous quatrains. The first half of the book introduces three world-historical Persians: Omar himself, a brilliant poet, mathematician, and astronomer; the vizier Nizam al-Mulk, a philosophical despot whose political theories anticipate Machiavelli; and the fanatical cult leader Hassan, who commands an invincible army of assassins from the mountain fortress of Alamut. In the second half, a wealthy collector miraculously recovers the lost manuscript and books passage show more home on the Titanic in celebration. show less

Early on in my reading life I encountered The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the famous translation by Edward Fitzgerald. This novel rekindled my memory of that first experience of Omar Khayyam and filled in some background with an imaginative fictional life as recounted in the Samarkand manuscript. Amin Maalouf succeeds in creating this life and in his tale brings the 11th century culture of Samarkand to life. He rejects the typical approach to long past tragedies and historical accounts, relying on whatever accurate information funded by the sponsor of the book or the publisher, Maalouf instead touches upon history and uses it as a backdrop to his fascinating tale.I enjoyed the excursion into fictional history behind one of my favorite show more books. show less

The story of Omar Khayyam, and of the American who find his manuscript at a time of cultural turmoil in Persia/Iran and loses it again on the Titanic. This feels like a book that people should be reading now. Khayyam lives in a middle east full of battle, tyranny, luxury and passionate difference about the right way to live in a Muslim society. Lesage lives at the turn of the twentieth century when Iran is caught between imperialism, westernisation and its own traditions. Romantic in many ways, sensuous and pleasurable, it tells us about the 'other', the mysterious east, that might not be as mysterious and incomprehensible as we still think (though - sadly - with less romance and more fear)