Historical Action Romance

Omar Khayyam by Harold Lamb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harold Lamb is not an obscure ancient writer; he wrote mostly between the world wars and was well received at the time, here and in the Middle East where many of his novels were set. But I had never heard of him and only discovered him by accident.

Now I read his writing with keen interest.

He is primarily a historian and translator, but he's one of those uncommon scholarly men who can write an engaging novel based on all the history he knows. His characters are complex, his language is a nice mix of direct and figurative, his story moves along quickly, and even though he wrote 80 or 90 years ago, there's little sign of chauvinism or intolerance. He knows his settings and is clearly sympathetic to his subjects.

I thought Khayyam was a poet, and he is, but as I learned here he really was a brilliant scientist and mathematician. (Those who don't know should google him.) His polymath achievements remind me of Galileo and Copernicus other such geniuses who saw beyond the limits of their culture and religion, glimpsing deep truths that they couldn't safely show the rest of the world. Or they paid for it if they did. The book made me curious about the real man behind the story, and then it made me a fan. A thousand years too late, perhaps, but a fan still.

The story told here is a fictionalized imagining of Khayyam's life, as the records are too few to really know enough about him, but it's great multicultural story of adventure and love and courage, with war and Assassins (capital intended) and kings and fortunes. One could change a few names and imagine it to be pure historical fiction about an imaginary character and enjoy it that way, but the broad strokes of the story are true and the reality impressive. Details and action are invented, but the man was real. And so was his poetry, apparently.

The author demonstrates a soft spot for iconoclasts and pot-stirrers, but he also shows sympathy for the common man and is sensitive to believers in a way that is surprisingly modern. Omar Khayyam might mock the blindness of faith; the author does not. With the perspective of the historian, he describes and demonstrates without offering judgment. That's how it felt to me, anyway.

Recommended for readers of history as well as those who favor romantic adventure stories. The historical notes at the end are helpful for those like me who are interested.

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