OMAR KHAYYAM, K ( 7 ?1123). A Persian poet and astronomer. He was a native of the city of Nishapur in Khorasan. The date of his birth is not known, but it was probably before the middle of the eleventh cen tury. His full name is given as Ghiyath ad-Din Abul-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim-al-Khayyami. The name Khayyam. 'tent-maker,' seems to have been derived from his father's occupation.
There are a few general points known about his life. He had a good education for his time, and the excellence of his memory is proved by a report that he could recite by heart, without a mistake, a book when he had read it over seven times. His special training was acquired from an aged teacher of Nishapur, the Imam 3luatTak. There is a persistent tradition that two of Omar Khayyam's fellow-students were Nizam and Hassan ben Sabbah; the former of these was destined to become famous as the Graml Vizier of Alp Arslan, the latter infamous as the founder of the order of 'Assassins.' There are chronologi cal difficulties in the way of making these three persons contemporaries in their youth, and this has led generally to a rejection of the story. The tale runs thus: The three collegians entered into a compact that whichever should first attain to fortune should aid the other two likewise to sue cess. Nizam id-Mulles talents and skill elevated him to the position of Grand Vizier to Alp Arslan. Not forgetful of the pledge, he raised Hassan to a position at Court which the latter soon abused. On Omar Khayyam. apparently by )mar's own preference. Nizain ul-Mulk arranged to bestow an annual stipend of 1200 init/i1aa.c, or about $3000 a year, to enable him to follow his chosen pursuits. On the death of Alp Arslan and the accession of Jalal ad-Din Malik Shah, Omar Khayyam repaired from Nishapur to the new Sul tan's capital, which was then at 3Ierv, and re ceived the appointment of Astronomer-Royal to the Court. He was engaged with seven other scientists to reform the calendar. which resulted in the adoption of a new era. the ,Talalian, or in Persian Tarikh-i-J0141, or Malik-Sh,qh1. This mode of reckoning dated from )larch 13. 1079 (tenth Ilamazan. A.II. 4711. His work on this commission was doubtless in large inirt only through collaboration, but the results of it are embodied in it series of • tables known as Ziji-i lia/ik•Shiflii. Besides this work three other mathemat lea] contributions bear Omar Khayyam's name: an unedited monograph on extracting the square and Nibe roots, and another on 'Some Diffieulties of Euclid's Defini tions,' while his Algebra. translated by Wallke in 1851, was important in the history of mathe matics. It was as an algebraist that Omar made his most noteworthy contribution to science. In this respect. lie stands out as the most notable mathematician of his time. Ile was the first to attempt a systematic classification of types of equations of the first three degrees, and to con sider cubics from the standpoint of the general equation, rather than as means for solving spe cific geometric problems. While he could solve certain cubic, he was not able to find a general solution. Biquadratics he asserted to be in soluble by geometry, the method always thought necessary for the cubic until after his time. Ile also knew the rule for expanding a binomial for positive integral powers, a rule afterwards perfected by Newton as the binomial theorem (q.v.).
In still other scientific lines Omar Khayyam's intellectual activity found expression; lie com posed three different hooks on subjects of nat ural science, and three likewise on metaphysics. But it is on his verses as the author of the Rubii'iyat, or quatrains, that his name will live.
The first Occidental mention of the liubwiyat, or renowned collection of quatrains, is found in Hyde, Historia Religionis 1"elcrum Persarum, pp. 49S-500 (Oxford, 1700), but neither this al
lusion nor notices by Sir Gore Ouseley and others attracted any special attention. It remained for Edward FitzGerald I q.v.) to introduce Omar to the West through a version of a hundred of the quatrains. The version is indeed a paraphrase, yet often very close, and it has caught almost exactly the spirit of the original. FitzGerald boldly ventured to rearrange the hundred stanzas that lie chose so as to give in a sort of sequence the development of the poet's changing mood. There is no stand ard manuscript to serve as a norm, and in the manuscript the quatrains are simply arranged in the alphabetic order of the final letter of the rhyme without reference to content. It is not even actually known how many of the quatrains are really Omar's. Over five hundred of these four-line stanzas are found, in different works and manuscripts, ascribed to him. Their tone is varied. In sonic the note is that of revolt against the Divine nister, whose power the slave must nevertheless acknowledge. A number of the quatrains revile the Soils, yet after all Omar had been trained under Snti influence, and so may not he wholly free from the mystie tinge. A strain of pantheism runs through many quat rains; while the song of the nightingale, its de votion to the pallid rose whose cheek the spring time causes to blush; the pleasures of love: and the joy of the fleeting hour darkened by the knowl edge of inevitable death, give a tenderness to others that is truly poetic. The tone of much of Omar's verse was justly regarded as heretical by orthodox Mohammedan Persia ; it is often debatable in the West whether the wine and the wine Pup be symbolic or Anacreontic. Perhaps the latter is neater the truth. although sonic al lowance will he made by those who are acquainted with the mystic poetry of hafts, Jami, Nizami, or Jalal ad-Din Ruud.
The date of Omar Khayyam's death is not Per tain. The year is given as A.D. 1111 A.H. 505) or as .%.n. 1123 (v.n. 5171 the latter, however, is much more probable. The story goes that he Ind prophesied that his grave would be at a place where a fruit 1ree should shower blossoms upon it ; and this has been fulfilled, for his tomb at \ishapur is in the midst of a garden of roses, sheltered by fruit trees and bays.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The Algebra of Omar KhayBibliography. The Algebra of Omar Khay- yam was edited and translated by Wcepke, L 'a /y/ bre 'Mina?. Alkhayydnie (Paris, 1851 ) . An almost complete bibliography of manuscripts, editions, translations, and imitations of tho Quatrains is given by Dole. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Bo-ton, 1896). FitzGerald's render ing into English verse has been constantly re produced since the first edition at London in 1859. :More important from a scholarly point of view are the edition of five hundred quatrains with a metrical text translation, by Whinfiehl 2d ed., London, 1g93). and the elaborate trans lation. keeping the metrical tricks of the original, by Payne, The Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, Now First Completely Done into English 1" crso from the Persian, with a Biographical and Criti cal Introduction (ib., 1S:18): and Heron-Allen. The Rabaiyat of Omar _Khayyam: Facsimile of the Manuscript in the Bodleian. Library, Trans lated and Edited (Boston. 189S). The convenient reissue of FitzGerald with a commentary by Batson. and a biographical introduction hr Ross, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (New York, 1900), is also of considerable interest. The mysticism of Omar's poetry is ably treated by Bjerregaard, Suli Interpretations of the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam and FitzGcrald (ib., 1902).