The Nowruz Letter of Omar Khayyam

A short Persian prose treatise from the Seljuk era, attributed to Omar Khayyam (the attribution is uncertain), on the origin of Nowruz and the customs of the Persian kings. It begins with Kayumars and Jamshid and tells how Nowruz came about, then describes one by one the gifts the chief Mobed brought the king on Nowruz morning: gold, a ring, green barley shoots, a sword, bow and arrow, the pen, a horse, a falcon, wine and a beautiful face. Each chapter carries short anecdotes, among them the tale of how wine was discovered at the court of Shamiran, king of Herat. This copy is Mojtaba Minovi's edition; a typed text of the book is also available on Ganjoor.