Remembering Persian poet Omar Khayyam 971 years on

Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet, Omar Khayyam was born on May 18, 1048, in northeastern Iran's Nishapur, to a family of tentmakers.

Khayyam, a famous mathematician of his time, started his education under Imam Muwaffaq Nishaburi. He later traveled to central Iran's Isfahan, where he began studying Greek mathematics.

Khayyam contributed to the classification and solution of cubic equations, provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics and supported the understanding of the parallel axiom.


The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald.

He was the founder of the Rubaai genre in Iran and eastern literature.

Khayyam's poetry received critical acclaim centuries after his death when poet Edward FitzGerald translated his masterpiece "Rubaiyat" into English. His poems questioned life, death and faith.

He also contributed to a solar calendar, completing it on March 21, 1079, variants of which are still used in Iran and Afghanistan. The Jalali calendar working according to the solar year gives an error of one day in 5,000 years, while today's civil Gregorian calendar gives an error of one day in 3,330 years.

Khayyam died on Dec. 4, 1131, and is buried at the Khayyam Garden in Nishapur.