Omar Khayam
Omar Khayam was born in Nishapur in province of Khorasan in Iran in the latter part of 11th century. He was considered “The King of Wisdom”; he died in 1123 AD. He is one of the most well known poets in the west and his poems are translated into many languages.
Statue of Khayyam at his Mausoleum in Neyshabur
It is common for Iranian poets to take their name from their occupation Khayam means “tent maker”. He was Omar the son of Abraham the tent maker. He worked in that trade at one time but he was favored by the king (Sultan), Malik Shah. Omar Khayam rejected the court life in favor of scientific studies and literary pursuits.
Tomb of Omar Khayyam in Neyshabur, Iran
Khayam was famous for his rubai (quatrain) poems, also known as a mathematician, historian, and astronomer.
Tomb of Khayyam
Omar Khayyám is famous today not only for his scientific accomplishments, but for his literary works. He is believed to have written about a thousand four-line verses. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the English translations by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883). Other people have also published translations of some of the rubáiyát (rubáiyát meaning “quatrains”), but Fitzgerald’s are the most well known. Translations also exist in languages other than English.
Omar Khayyám was also famous as an astronomer. In 1073, the Malik-Shah, sultan of Seljuk, invited Khayyám to build and work with an observatory, along with various other distinguished scientists. Eventually, Khayyám very accurately (correct to six decimal places) measured the length of the solar year as 365.24219858156 days. This calendar measurement has only a 1 hour error in every 5,500 years, whereas the Gregorian Calendar used today, has a 1 day error in every 3,330 years. He also calculated how to correct the Persian calendar. On March 15, 1079, Sultan Jalal al-Din Malekshah Saljuqi (1072-92) put Omar’s corrected calendar into effect, as in Europe Julius Caesar had done in 46 B.C. with the corrections of Sosigenes, and as Pope Gregory XIII would do in February 1552 with Aloysius Lilius’ corrected calendar (although Britain would not switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1751, and Russia would not switch until 1918).
He was famous during his lifetime as a mathematician, well known for inventing the method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle. In 1070 he wrote his greatest work on algebra. In it he classified equations according to their degree, and gave rules for solving quadratic equations, which are very similar to the ones in use today, and a geometric method for solving cubic equations with real roots.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam was translated by Edward FitzGerald, an English poet and translator who lived 1809-1883. Although The Robaiyat of Omar Khayam gained popularity slowly in the west, it became the most loved poems in English language.
The architecture of his shrine is like a tent because his ancestors’ occupation was tentmaker. Some of his poems have been written on the walls surrounding the shrine. His shrine is in a garden that Imamzadeh Mahroq Mosque is placed there as well, about 100 meters near his shrine.
Sample of Omar Khayyam's Poetry
O Mullah, We (people) do much more work than you do
Even when we are drunk, we are still more sober than you
You drink (suck) people’s blood and we drink the grapes blood(wine)
Let’s be fair, which one of us is more immoral?
