Omar Khayyam

Ghiyasuddin Abul Fath Umar "Khayyam" was born in Nishapur, Iran in 1,025 A.C. His pen name "Khayyam” means Tentmaker, but there is no evidence to prove that he or his father were ever actually engaged in that trade.

Umar received an excellent education and he is described as an eminent man of science, who drank deeply from the well of Greek wisdom and wrote books on Astronomy, Mathematics, Metaphysic and Natural Philosophy.


In 1074 A.C. Sultan Malikshah of Iran appointed him to preside over a commission of astronomers which was entrusted with the task of reforming the calendar. The commission, after three years' deliberations suggested reforms which, according to the historian Gibbons, "corrected all errors, either past or future by a computation of time which surpasses the Julian and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style".

During the period of political and religious strife which ensued upon the death of Sultan Malikshah in 1092 A.C., Umar Khayyam left his native town. In 1,112 A.C. he was at Balkh where he was reported to have written the famous Rubaiyat in which he uttered the famous prediction: "My grave will be in a spot where the trees will shed their blossoms on me twice a year."

Although Umar Khayyam is very famous in the countries of the West as a poet whose Rubaiyats have achieved immortality, in his native land, - Iran he is ranked among the famous astronomers, mathematicians and scientists of the day and little or no allusion is made to his poetry. For instance, Nizami Aruzi, a professional poet of the time who lived chiefly in Khorasen at royal courts and where he had opportunities of meeting many noteworthy persons, refers to Khayyam as a man of science and calls him "Hujjat-ul-Haq" - Proof of Truth - and speaks of him with the affectionate reverence due to a master.

Umar Khayyam was a Sufi mystic and the reference he makes to wine in his poems is quite in keeping with the Persian mode of poetic expression which use such terms as drinking deep the Wine of Wisdom and seeking Intoxication which make one oblivious of everything except the Existence of the Beloved, - Allah.

Umar Khayyam's Rubaiyats have been translated by many in various languages. The English version by Edward Fitzgerald, though the most famous in the West, is the least reliable to convey the true thoughts of Umar, for Fitzgerald himself confesses that: "it is an amusement to me to take what liberties I like with these Persians".

In one Ruba-i, Umar says of Allah:

"Though pearls of worship, I ne'er strung for Thee
Nor cleansed my face of sin's foul stain. I see
Hope Thou mayst yet forgive me all because
I never counted ONE as two or three. "


Of man Umar says:

"Man, is not the Creation's last appeal
The light of wisdom's eye? Behold the wheel
Of universal life as 't were a ring
But Man the superscription and the seal!"

Umar Khayyam died in 1,123 A.C. at Nishapur and his dying words were:

"O Allah, I have known Thee to the fullest extent of my power: forgive me, therefore, since my knowledge of Thee is my only means of approaching Thee".