Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian polymath active in Nishapur and other centers of the Seljuk Empire, working as a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and poet. His mathematical treatise on algebra gave the first systematic geometric classification and solution of cubic equations using conic sections, and his calendrical work led a commission of astronomers to devise the Jalali calendar, whose accuracy rivaled and in some respects exceeded the later Gregorian calendar. He is far better known in the West through the Rubaiyat, a collection of quatrains popularized by Edward FitzGerald's 19th century translation, though the extent to which the historical Khayyam actually composed the poems attributed to him remains disputed among scholars. His scientific reputation, substantial in his own time and place, was for centuries overshadowed in Western popular memory by his poetic one.