Did the author base this element on the Rubaiyat?

Question

In a non-fiction history book, _Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years_, a (temporarily) recurring element is "The Tower of Darkness".Chapter 3 is even titled that, and it's fairly clearly referring to the Islamic empire or caliphate and its rule of a significant portion of Eurasia.When searching to find whether the author made that phrase up, I found it's from Edward FitzGerald's English translation of _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam_: <!-- yes it's FitzGerald -->> A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries "Fools! Your reward is neither Here nor There!"Is there any direct evidence that the author of the history book got this phrase from the Rubaiyat?

Answer 1

#1. These kinds of questions/queries may never be able to be answered with complete reliability; however, discussions along these lines do open up related & vital matters.

In this case, the historiography of this subject is being drawn out for further or deeper exploration.

Historiography is the study of the how, why, when, where, by/for whom history is written or recorded. Put another way, the events, characters and narratives that come to us from time periods long past are, as often as not, altered or adjusted according to the desires or needs of the ones writing, telling or recording them at that time and thereafter.

In order to answer reliably or completely your question of whether or not any direct evidence exists that supports or refutes the original source of the phrase "Tower of Darkness," you would have to do one of two things or some combination thereof: 1. Perform your own research and do so deeply or thoroughly enough that you eventually achieve an answer that satisfies or reach a deduction that is reliable or valid by most or all standards. OR 2. Reach out and connect with someone or some source that has already done this research.

The primary upshot of my response or the main thing to note or learn from this is the true value/function of primary research: only by doing one's very own first-hand research or exploration can one reach or achieve the depth or level of reliability, validity or trust that is called for in such scenarios.

In short, most, if not all of history is also created by and transmitted by people and people are also fallible or vulnerable to shaping things according to their own selfish or self serving desires and needs. History does, in truth and in fact, get warped or twisted according to many various forces and factors.

It is always up to the individual asking or seeking answers and truth to reach or achieve said truth: it is up to each of us to establish and define the importance and validity of anything we seek.

Thank you for your query and I hope this helps. I do not know where or whence the phrase "Tower of Darkness" comes from myself but I do know that if you have a passion for such things, you are on to something important...something that matters to you.

Find and follow what you love or what you have passion, zeal, zest or fire for. And do not ever allow anyone or anything to deter you from your own true passion.

Jeffrey Honnold

a writing teacher and lover of all things literacy related