Overview

Omar Khayyam (c. 1048-1131), also known as Umar al-Khayyam, was a Persian poet, scientist and mathematician. Khayyam's greatest work in mathematics was his enumeration of the various types of cubic equations and his solutions of each type. Khayyam's work on cubic equations was a synthesis of Greek geometry, Babylonian and Hindu arithmetic, and Islamic algebra. His work greatly influenced future Islamic mathematicians, and through them the mathematicians of Renaissance Europe.

Background

Omar Khayyam was born in what is now Iran. He is best known in the West as a great Persian poet and philosopher. Khayyam's poetry (called the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam), written in the form of quatrains, was translated and adapted by Edward FitzGerald in the nineteenth century. These poems were admired as shining examples of Eastern culture. Although it is questionable...