The Astronomer Poet

Omar Khayyam was born in Nishapur, in what is now Iran, on May 18, 1048. In the West, he is remembered as the author of the Rubaiyat, a collection of quatrains translated into English by Edward FitzGerald in 1859. That translation turned Khayyam into a literary figure -- a fatalistic poet drinking wine under the stars. The real Khayyam was something far more interesting: a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who happened to also write poetry.

His mathematical work was groundbreaking. He provided the first systematic treatment of cubic equations, solving them geometrically using the intersection of conic sections. He proved that cubic equations could have more than one solution and laid groundwork that would not be surpassed until the 16th century. His astronomical work was equally precise. Commissioned by the Seljuk Sultan to reform the calendar, Khayyam led a team that produced the Jalali calendar, measuring the year at 365.24219858156 days -- more accurate than the Gregorian calendar introduced 500 years later.

mausoleum of omar khayyam in nishapur, iran, where he was born and died. source: wikimedia commons

The poetry, if it is even all his, is the least of his contributions. The Rubaiyat became famous in the West, but scholars still debate how many of the quatrains attributed to Khayyam were actually written by him. The themes -- mortality, impermanence, the futility of certainty -- are consistent with his philosophical outlook, but attribution in medieval Persian literature is notoriously unreliable.

Khayyam died in 1131 in his hometown. He left behind mathematical proofs, astronomical tables, and possibly some poems. The West made him a poet. The East knew him as a scientist. He was both, and the fact that those categories seem contradictory says more about us than about him.