Omar Khayyam

Persian mathematician and poet (1048–1131)

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Momentum0.8
Academics rank#52
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Lived 1048–1131, aged 83

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Wikipedia
115 languages
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Era
1048–1131
Aged 83

Summary

Updated 2026-09-06

He solved cubic equations centuries before Descartes got credit, built a calendar so precise it's still running a thousand years later, and somehow became most famous in the West for wine-soaked quatrains he may or may not have written.

Biography

About

Omar Khayyam was born in 1048 in Nishapur, Iran, during the Seljuk era and the time of the First Crusade. As a mathematician, he cracked the general solution for third-degree polynomials using intersecting conic sections—work that would later be attributed to Descartes, though Khayyam's geometric method adhered strictly to the rule of homogeneity. He also probed the foundations of Euclid's parallel axiom, describing what's now called the Khayyam-Saccheri quadrilateral in his 11th-century treatise on Euclid's postulates. In astronomy, he calculated the solar year with startling precision and de…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam

saidundated

By the help of God and with His precious assistance, I say that Algebra is a scientific art.

— A Treatise on Algebra, translated by Daoud S. Kasir, in Henrietta O. Midonick (ed.) The Treasury of Mathematics (New York, NY:

Omar Khayyam

saidundated

Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain. No attention should be paid to the fact that algebra and geometry are different in appearance.

— Reported in A. R. Amir-Moez, "A Paper of Omar Khayyam", Scripta Mathematica, 26 (1963) pp. 323–337

Omar Khayyam

saidundated

Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness.

— Translated by Justin McCarthy, in Longman's Magazine (July 1889) p. 335

Omar Khayyam

saidundated

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

— I (1859)

Omar Khayyam

saidundated

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry, "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry.

— II (1859)

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