2021-05-18 Tue

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. He was born in Nishabur, in northeastern Iran, and spent most of his life near the court of the Karakhanid and Seljuq rulers in the period which witnessed the First Crusade.

His name Khayyam (“Tentmaker”) may have been derived from his father’s trade. He received a good education in the sciences and philosophy in his native Nishabur before traveling to Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan), where he completed the algebra treatise. In this treatise, he gave a systematic discussion of the solution of cubic equations by means of intersecting conic sections.

Khayyam also contributed to the understanding of the parallel axiom. As an astronomer, he designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year intercalation cycle. To honor him Dubai Postal Department has issued a stamp of value 20 Dirham in 1967.

Omar Khayyam died at the age of 83 in his hometown on 4 December 1131, and he is buried in what is now the Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.

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