Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and philosopher from Nishapur, now best known for the poems attributed to him. He gave geometric solutions to cubic equations, studied Euclid's parallel postulate and led the astronomers who devised the Jalali calendar for the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah. He also wrote short philosophical treatises in the tradition of Avicenna. The quatrains (rubaʿiyat) linked to his name, made famous in English by Edward FitzGerald in 1859, reflect on the brevity of life, the limits of knowledge and the pleasures of the present. Which of them he actually wrote is uncertain.

Key ideas

• Life is brief and the future uncertain, so the present moment should be valued.
• Human reason cannot settle the deepest questions of origin, fate and what follows death.
• Cubic equations can be classified and solved geometrically, using intersecting conic sections.
• Euclid's parallel postulate needs examination and proof rather than simple acceptance.

Major works

• The Rubaiyat (English version by Edward FitzGerald, 1859)
• Treatise on Algebra (1070s)
• Commentary on the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid (1077)
• On Being and Necessity (11th century)

In the Book corner

• The Rubaiyat 11th–12th century (attributed); FitzGerald's English version 1859 · Beginner
  A collection of Persian quatrains, or rubāʿiyāt, attributed to Omar Khayyam, the eleventh- and twelfth-century mathematician and astronomer of Nishapur. Which quatrains…

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