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Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title given by Edward FitzGerald to his translation of a selection of quatrains, originally written in Persian and numbering about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048-1131), a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. The nature of a translation of the quatrains depends on what interpretation one gives to Khayyám's philosophy. There have been different versions of the book according to the selection and arrangement to support one interpretation or the other. Some like Nicolas have viewed Khayyám as a Sufi, while others have seen signs of mysticism, even atheism, or conversely devout and orthodox Islam in him. FitzGerald has given the rubáiyát a distinct fatalistic spin. It is widely claimed that he softened the impact of Khayyám's nihilism and his preoccupation with the mortality and transience of all things. The translations by Edward FitzGerald became so popular that five editions came between 1859 and 1889.