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The famous Persian tale that Omar Khayyam, Nizam al-Mulk and Hasan-i Sabbah were schoolfriends cannot be true: Nizam al-Mulk was about thirty years older than the other two. In the story, the three boys swear that whoever rises first will help the others.

Three Schoolfellows

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The story behind the card

Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a mathematician, astronomer and poet; Nizam al-Mulk (1018–1092) was the all-powerful vizier of the Seljuk empire; Hasan-i Sabbah (c. 1050–1124) founded the Nizari Ismaili state at Alamut. The tale first appears in the fourteenth-century history of Rashid al-Din, and later Persian writers retold it. Edward FitzGerald put it in the introduction to his 1859 English Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which made it famous in the West. Modern historians treat it as folklore: besides the age gap, the three grew up in different places, Hasan in Qom and Rey rather than Nishapur.

Türkçe oku
Ömer Hayyam, Nizamülmülk ve Hasan Sabbah'ın okul arkadaşı olduğunu anlatan ünlü İran hikâyesi gerçek olamaz: Nizamülmülk öbür ikisinden otuz yaş kadar büyüktü. Hikâyeye göre üç çocuk, içlerinden ilk yükselenin öbürlerine yardım edeceğine yemin eder.

Ömer Hayyam (1048–1131) matematikçi, gökbilimci ve şairdi; Nizamülmülk (1018–1092) Selçuklu Devleti'nin çok güçlü veziriydi; Hasan Sabbah (yaklaşık 1050–1124) ise Alamut merkezli Nizari İsmaili devletini kurdu. Hikâye ilk kez 14. yüzyılda Reşidüddin'in tarih kitabında karşımıza çıkar; sonraki İranlı yazarlar da onu yeniden anlattı. Edward FitzGerald 1859'da yayımladığı İngilizce Rubaiyat çevirisinin girişine bu hikâyeyi koyunca anlatı Batı'da da ünlendi. Bugünkü tarihçiler hikâyeyi halk anlatısı sayar: Yaş farkının yanı sıra üçü farklı yerlerde büyüdü; Hasan, Nişabur'da değil, Kum'da ve Rey'de yetişti.

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Background reading: Three Schoolfellows
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