Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet and polymath born in Nishapur, Iran, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and Persian literature during the Seljuk era. As a mathematician he was the first to provide a general solution for all third-degree polynomials using the intersection of two conic sections, and as an astronomer he calculated the duration of the solar year with remarkable precision and designed the Jalali calendar, the basis of the Persian calendar still in use nearly a millennium later. A tradition of attributing poetry to him in the form of quatrains, or rubaiyat, became widely known to English readers through Edward FitzGerald's 1859 translation, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which enjoyed great success amid the Orientalism of the fin de siecle.