The Rubáiyát, loosely based on the verses attributed to Omar Khayyám, is one of the most widely known poems in the world. It has been republished virtually every year from 1879 (the year of its fourth edition) to the present day, and translated into over 80 different languages. This volume of essays is based on a conference held in 2009 to honour the bicentenary of the birth of Edward FitzGerald (1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859). It was organised by the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Faculty of English) in collaboration with the Persian Department at the University of Leiden (who organised a complementary conference in the Netherlands). The conference was convened by Dr Christine van Ruymbeke (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge), Professor Adrian Poole (Faculty of English, Cambridge) and Professor Charles Melville (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge), in memoriam Peter Avery, OBE. We wish to express our warm gratitude to the following for the generosity of their support for the 2009 conference, without which the current volume would not have been possible: the Soudavar Cambridge Fund for Persian Studies; the British Institute of Persian Studies; the Iran Heritage Foundation; the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge; the Ancient India and Iran Trust; Pembroke College, Cambridge; Trinity College, Cambridge; and Cambridgeshire County Council.