Polymath · 1048 – 1131
Omar Khayyam
Key Takeaways
- Omar Khayyam was a leading mathematician and astronomer of the Islamic Golden Age.
- He advanced the theory of cubic equations in algebra.
- He helped reform the Persian calendar to remarkable accuracy.
- His quatrains, the Rubaiyat, made him a beloved poet in the West.
Omar Khayyam led two lives in one. To the Islamic Golden Age he was a brilliant mathematician and astronomer; to the modern West he is the poet of the Rubaiyat, musing on wine, time and the fleeting beauty of life.
Scientist of Nishapur
Building on the algebra founded by al-Khwarizmi, Khayyam advanced the solution of cubic equations and worked at the frontier of geometry. As an astronomer he helped reform the Persian calendar so precisely that it outdid the Gregorian calendar still in use today.
The poet the West discovered
For centuries his quatrains were little known beyond Persia. Then, in the 19th century, Edward FitzGerald’s loose English translation of the Rubaiyat became a sensation, and Khayyam joined fellow Persian poet Rumi among the world’s beloved verse-makers — a polymath’s mind remembered, fittingly, for the music of his words.
Influence
Omar Khayyam embodied the union of science and poetry in the Islamic Golden Age, and through Edward FitzGerald's translation his Rubaiyat became one of the most quoted poems in English.
Legacy
Honoured in the East as a mathematician and in the West as a poet, he stands as a symbol of the breadth of Islamic Golden Age learning.
Major Works
- The Rubaiyat
- Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra
Connections
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Omar Khayyam?
Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet of the Islamic Golden Age, famous in the West for the Rubaiyat.
What is the Rubaiyat?
The Rubaiyat is a collection of quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam, meditating on fate, the passage of time and the enjoyment of life, made famous in English by Edward FitzGerald.
Citations & Sources
People Like Omar
Al-Khwarizmi
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Why An earlier founder of algebra whose work Omar Khayyam extended to cubic equations.
Rumi
81Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic verse on divine love became some of the most beloved poetry in the world and made him, centuries later, one of the most widely read poets in the West.
Why A fellow Persian poet whose verse, like Khayyam's, became world-famous.
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Carl Friedrich Gauss
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