Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (c. 1048-1122). Persian poet, astronomer, and mathematician, The son of a tentmaker, he was best known in Persia for his treatise on algebra and metaphysics and for his astronomical works. His fame in the Western world, however, rests on Edward Fitzgerald’s free translation of a number of his poems as The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859). This consists of a series of quatrains expressing a cynical and hedonistic view of life. Persian scholars have expressed doubts that all the verses attributed to Khayyam were written by him.
