From “David Corcoran”
Subject Re: Fwd: Persians are not Arabs – need correction
Date Wed, July 7, 2004 1:27 pm
To “Cyrus J. Farivar”
Persian it is. The correction will say his POETRY is in Persian,
leaving the other works aside.
Thanks again for your help and good humor.
David
>Heh. You’re opening a can of worms with that. If you ask me, I’d say
>either one is fine — but probably Persian is the safest.
>
>You might want to acknowledge that Khayyam did write in both
>languages, Persian and Arabic — I was assuming that the reporter
>meant his poetry (Rubiyyat), which was in Persian, and not his
>scientific/mathematic works, which were in Arabic.
>
>I appreciate the prompt reply — and I do know how easy it is to
>make mistakes like this. I’m a fellow journalist too.
>
>-C
>
>On Wed, 7 Jul 2004, David Corcoran wrote:
>
>>Thanks again for your letter. We received many like it.
>>
>>We will publish a correction, for which I need to ask your expert
>>advice: Is it proper to call Omar Khayyam’s language Persian, Farsi
>>or both?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>>To the Editor of the Science Times and Ms. Margaret Wertheim:
>>>>
>>>>I wanted to write you to tell you that I very much enjoyed your
>>>>July 6 article “Virtual Camp Trains Soldiers in Arabic, and More.”
>>>>
>>>>However, I found a glaring error in the 10th paragraph, where you
>>>>write: “No one is going to be able to read Omar Khayyam after
>>>>this training…” implying that Khayyam wrote in Arabic. In fact,
>>>>Khayyam was Persian and remains one of the greatest Persian
>>>>writers in history.
>>>>
>>>>While the Persian language does use the Arabic alphabet, the two
>>>>languages are no more similar than English and French, languages
>>>>that also share an alphabet.
>>>>
>>>>Therefore, someone learning Arabic would not be very likely to
>>>>understand the works of Omar Khayyam.
>>>>
>>>>I humbly request a correction at your earliest convenience.
>>>>
>>>>-Cyrus J. Farivar
>>>>Berkeley, CA
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>……………………………….
>>
>>
>>David Corcoran
>>Asst Science Editor
>>The New York Times
>>229 West 43rd Street
>>New York, NY 10036
>>
>>(212) 556-4501
>>fax (212) 556-7306
