Deciding an Attribution Label for an Unnamed Quatrain
A school edition committee is examining a Persian majmū'a copied in Assam in 1857. On folio 12b there is a quatrain with no poet's name: «ای بس که نباشیم و جهان خواهد بود / نی نام ز ما و نی نشان خواهد بود». The students recognize the mortality theme and want to print it as «از خیام». The teacher insists on an attribution policy: the edition may use «منسوب به خیام» but not a bare «خیام» unless there is manuscript evidence. The committee has the majmū'a's colophon, which names only the copyist, and two later printed anthologies that attribute the quatrain to Khayyam. The edition is for higher secondary students, so the note must be short but honest. The class has 25 minutes to decide the label and draft a two-line note.
1. What label should the edition use, and why is a bare «خیام» unjustified?
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Use «منسوب به خیام» ('attributed to Khayyam') or «بینام» ('anonymous'), not a bare «خیام». The 1857 majmū'a's colophon names only the copyist, so the manuscript itself does not attribute the quatrain. The two later printed anthologies are derivative witnesses, not independent early evidence; quatrain anthologies often grouped anonymous material under famous names. The theme of mortality and the rubā'ī form are shared property, not a fingerprint. A school edition should model evidential caution: print the text, state the manuscript's lack of attribution, and note the later attribution as a reception fact rather than as proved authorship.
2. Draft the two-line note and state what evidence would justify a firm attribution.
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Note: 'This quatrain appears without a poet's name in the 1857 majmū'a (fol. 12b); later anthologies attribute it to Khayyam, so it is printed here as attributed, not as certain.' A firm attribution would require an early dated manuscript that names Khayyam in the rubric or colophon, a plausible chain of transmission, and a stemma showing that the attribution is not a late popular label. Even then, quatrain attributions remain probabilistic; the edition should prefer «منسوب» unless the evidence is strong. Students should learn to distinguish 'the manuscript says' from 'later editors say'.