OMAR KHAYYAM

About: 

• Timeline: He was born on May 18, 1048, in Iran’s Nishapur into a family of tent-makers (Khayyam). He died on December 4, 1131, and was buried in the Khayyam Garden. 
  
  
• Name: His full name was Abu’l Fath Omar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Khayyām. 
  
  
• Political advisor: One of the most renowned scholars of his time, Khayyan worked as an advisor and court astrologer to Malik Shah I in Khorasan province. 
  
  
• Poet: Khayyam was famous for his poetry and verses. He wrote more than a thousand ‘Rubaiyat’ or verses. ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, a section of work translated by Edward Fitzgerald, became popular in the West centuries after his death.
  
  
• Astronomer: As an astronomer, he designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year intercalation cycle. This later became the base of several other calendars.
  
  
• Mathematician:
  • As a mathematician, Khayyam is known for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. He was the first to give a general method for solving cubic equations.
    
    
  • Khayyam also contributed to the understanding of the parallel axiom.
    
    
  • Khayyam also made major contributions to algebra, including penning down ‘Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra’.
    
    
  • He discovered a triangular array of binomial theorem the nth root of natural numbers — his works on this have been lost.
    
    
  • He also wrote ‘Problems of Arithmetic’, a book on music and algebra.