Birth of Omar Khayyám

Omar Khayyám was born on 18 May 1048 in Nishapur. A Persian polymath born in Nishapur, Khayyám was a respected mathematician and astronomer in his own lifetime. He wrote an important treatise on algebra, showing how to solve cubic equations by geometric means, and he took part in the reform of the Persian calendar under the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah, producing an accurate solar calendar. He is best known in the West for the Rubáiyát, a collection of quatrains, popularized in the English translation of Edward FitzGerald in 1859. Scholars disagree about how many of the verses attributed to him he actually wrote, since many later poets added their own.

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