….Omar Khayyam was a renowned mathematician and astronomer.
Born in Nishapur, Iran, Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) is best known in his native country for his mathematical achievements. After completing is education in Nishapur, he traveled to Samarkand, now in Uzbekistan, where he completed his famous work titled Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, on which rests his mathematical reputation. He extended the work on extraction of cube and fourth roots to the extraction of nth roots for arbitrary whole numbers. His reputation resulted in an invitation from the Seljuk Sultan to Isfahan, in Iran, to undertake the astronomical observations necessary to reform the calendar. An observatory was built there in order for him to accomplish this task and a new, more accurate calendar was produced. Omar Khayyam’s ideas influenced the English mathematician John Wallis (1616-1703), who contributed substantially to the origins of calculus, and was the most influential English mathematician before Isaac Newton. Omar subsequently taught and served the court in Nishapur as an astrologer. He mastered philosophy, jurisprudence, history, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. One of the moon’s craters has been named after him in recognition of his contribution.
In the English-speaking world, Omar Khayyam is best known for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám translated into English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883).
Source: United States Geological Survey; Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
