Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyám
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Region	Persian scholar
School	Persian mathematics, Persian poetry, Persian philosophy
Main interests	Poetry, Mathematics, Islamic philosophy, Astronomy
Influences Avicenna, Euclid, Apollonius of Perga

Omar Khayyām (Persian: عمر خیام) or Omar Khayyam (18 May 1048 Nishapur, (Iran) – 4 December 1131) was a Persian, mathematician, astronomer and poet.

In mathematics he contributed to the theory of equations, to the understanding of the parallel axiom, and possibly to the generalization of the binomial theorem. As an astronomer he contributed to a calendar reform when Sultan Malik-Shah decided that the calendar needed some adjusting. He is best known for his agnostic and sceptic poetry, largely because of the publication in 1859 of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by the translator Edward Fitzgerald.

References

• E.G. Browne. Literary History of Persia. (Four volumes, 2,256 pages, and 25 years in the writing). 1998. ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
• Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature. Reidel Publishing Company. 1968. ISBN 90-277-0143-1

Related pages

• List of Persian poets and authors

Other websites

• Works by Omar Khayyám at Project Gutenberg
• The Persian Poet (http://www.omar-khayyam.org Archived 2010-03-30 at the Wayback Machine) - Contains the translations by Edward FitzGerald and a biography.
• The Rubaiyat Archived 2011-06-03 at the Wayback Machine
• On Omar's solutions to cubic equations Archived 2003-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Khayyam, Umar. A biography by Professor Iraj Bashiri, University of Minnesota.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Omar Khayyam", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
• The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam Archived 2007-02-13 at the Wayback Machine