Omar Khayyam was a great

-mathematician of the 11th

century who also contributed
in the fields of poetry,
astronomy and philosophy.
He was born in Persia on May
18, 1048 in the city of
Nishapur which is now
located in Iran. His full name
was Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath
Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-
Nishapuri al-Khayyami while
his father’s name was
Ebrahim Khayyami who was
either a physician or a tent
maker; it is not exactly
known.
Omar studied from different
renowned teachers in his
childhood including
Bahmanyar bin Marzban who
was a Zoroastrian and taught
him science, philosophy, and
mathematics. Prominent
Muslim teachers included
Khawjah al-Anbari for
astronomy, Sheikh
Muhammad Mansuri and
Mowaffaq Nishapuri.

Omar then moved to

Samarkand for higher studies
in 1068. There he got a
position in the King’s
treasury but continued
working in mathematics.
While his stay there, he
made major contributions in
the field of algebra and got
his treatises published as
Risālah fiʾl-barāhīn ʿalā
masāʾil al-jabr waʾl-
muqābalah or Treatise on
Demonstration of Problems
of Algebra and Balancing in
1070 which proved to be a
milestone in his success as a
mathematician. In this, he
devised a geometric method
for solving cubic equations
through intersection of
parabola and circle.
Impressed by his work and
capabilities, the Sultan of the
Seljuk Empire and his vizier
(Malik Shah and Nizam al-
Mulk) invited Omar to Persia
in 1073 for an astronomical
work; the preparation of a
calendar. Working with other
scientists, Omar carried out
observations and
measurements in Esfahan,
Persia and constructed the
Iranian calendar which we
now know as the Jalali
Calendar. Through this work
Omar made prominent
discoveries like 365.2422
days form one year and there
were 8 leap years in every 33
years. Based on the
calculations made by Omar,
the Gregorian calendar was
built around 500 years later.

Making yet another major

contribution as a
mathematician, Omar
stepped into geometry and
attempted a work through
the fifth postulate; the
parallel postulate from
Euclid’s postulates that had
been presented in 300BC. In
his publication Sharh ma
ashkala min musadarat kitab
Uqlidis (On the Difficulties of
Euclid’s Definitions or
Explanations of the
Difficulties in the Postulates
in Euclid’s Elements) in 1077,
he gave an alternate
explanation for the parallel
postulate rather than proving
it but this attempt opened
the path of non-Euclidean
geometry for the future
mathematicians.

Omar had become good

friends with Malik Shah
during his time in Esfahan
and was able to produce a lot
of scientific work with him,
but the death of the Sultan
and his vizier in 1092 marked
the start of difficulties for
him. Malik’s widow and some
other people turned enemies
towards Omar which led him
into hiding. Later, he went
back to his hometown
Nishapur where he started
teaching and working as an
astrologer.

Besides a mathematician and

astronomer, Omar was also a
great poet. He had written
many Rubaiyat or quatrains
(poetry of four verses) but
never got them published in
his life. His writings were
later found and introduced to
the world through their
translations done by different
poets in various languages.
One of these poets was
Edward FitzGerald who not
only translated them in
English, but brilliantly
combined the rubaiyat that
he found coherent into
consistent poems and
published them as The
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
It proved to be the major
source of making Omar’s
poetry famous in Iran as well
as many European countries
in 1859.

Omar Khayyam died on

December 4, 1131 at the age
of 83 in Nishapur. He had
chosen the location for his
burial himself before his
death, where a tomb was
built for him.