Omar Khayyam

Hakim Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-fath Omar Ibn Ibrahim Khayyam Neyshapuri was born in Neyshapur on May 18, in 1048 A.D. He is also called Khayyam Neyshapuri, Khayyami or Omar Khayyam. He is thought to have been born into a family of tent-makers, later in life he would make this into a play on words (literally, Khayyam in Arabic means tent-maker ). He was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. Also, he wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, and music. He spent part of his childhood in the town of Balkh, studying under the well-known scholar Sheikh Mohammad Mansuri and Imam Mowaffagh Neyshapuri, who was considered one of the greatest teachers of Khorasan region. He was one of the followers of Ibn Sina in philosophy which was based on wisdom, logic, and reason. Imam Mohammad Ghazali and Ein al-Ghozat Hamedani were his students. Khayyam passed away at the age of 83 in 1131 A.D. in Neyshapur and his tomb is there, too. After the conquest of Samarghand by Malekshah Saljughi, Khayyam became the minister of court with the help of Khaje Nezam al-Molk. Also, as an astronomer he worked in the observatory of Isfahan and along with other distinguished scholars like Beyhaghi, introduced several reforms to the Persian calendar. This calendar was known as Jalali calendar which is now the basis of Iranian calendar. Additionally, he built a star map which was famous in the Persian and Islamic world.Also, Khayyam was famous during his time as a mathematician. He wrote the influential Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra (1070), which determined the principles of algebra, part of the body of Persian Mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. In particular, he derived general methods for solving cubic equations and even some higher orders. In addition, he worked on non-Euclidian geometry which became the basis of Lobachevski and Einstein works on geometry.Khayyam's poetic work has eclipsed his fame as a mathematician and scientist. He is believed to have written about a thousand four-line verses or quatrains (Rubaies).