1048-1131

Persian Mathematician, Astronomer, and Poet

Omar Khayyam occupies an unusual place among mathematicians, in that he is widely known—but for his poetry rather than for his achievements in mathematics. Two of the most famous lines in literature come from the 1859 translation of his Rubaiyat by Edward Fitzgerald: "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou..." and "The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on...." Yet his work as a poet was but a small part of a career that included advancement of methods for solutions to algebraic equations and a highly accurate calculation of the year's length.

Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami was born on May 18, 1048, in the Persian city of Nishapur. Al-Khayyam means tent-maker, the profession of his father. By the age of 25, Khayyam had already produced books on arithmetic, algebra, and music, and after moving to...