Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period. He was acknowledged as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times. This is reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, has not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings.

Early life and Career:

Omar Khayyam was born on the 18th of May, 1048 in Iran. Omar Khayyam’s full name was Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath Umar Ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami. He was born into a family of tent makers. He spent part of his childhood in the town of Balkh, northern Afghanistan, studying under Sheik Muhammad Mansuri. Later on, he studied under Imam Mowaffaq Nishapuri, who was considered one of the greatest teachers of the Khorassan region. Khayyam had notable works in geometry, particularly on the theory of proportions.

He was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. He wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, and music. The treatise of Khayyam can be considered as the first treatment of parallels axiom which is not based on petition principle but on more intuitive postulate. Khayyam refutes the previous attempts by other Greek and Persian mathematicians to prove the proposition. And he refused the use of motion in geometry.

Khayyam was the mathematician who noticed the importance of a general binomial theorem. The argument supporting the claim that Khayyam had a general binomial theorem is based on his ability to extract roots. Khayyam was part of a panel that introduced several reforms to the Persian calendar. On March 15, 1079, Sultan Malik Shah, accepted this corrected calendar as the official Persian calendar.

Khayyam’s poetic work has eclipsed his fame as a mathematician. He has written about a thousand four-line verses or quatrains. In the English-speaking world, he was introduced through the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam which is rather free-wheeling English translations by Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883). Khayyam’s personal beliefs are discernible from his poetic oeuvre. In his own writings, Khayyam rejects strict religious structure and a literalist conception of the afterlife.
Khayyam taught for decades the philosophy of Avicenna, especially in his home town Nishapur, till his death. Khayyam, the philosopher can be understood from two rather distinct sources. One is through his Rubaiyat and the other through his own works in light of the intellectual and social conditions of his time. The latter could be informed by the evaluations of Khayyam’s works by scholars and philosophers such as Bayhaqi, Nezami Aruzi, and Zamakhshari and Sufi poets and writers Attar Nishapuri and Najmeddin Razi. As a mathematician, Khayyam has made fundamental contributions to the Philosophy of mathematics especially in the context of Persian Mathematics and Persian philosophy with which, most of the other Persian scientists and philosophers such as Avicenna, Biruni, and Tusi are associated.

Death:

Omer Khayyam passed away on December the 4th 1131 in Nishapur, Persia now known as Iran.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
(A section of the poem)

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

But helpless pieces in the game He plays, Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days,
He hither and thither moves, and checks… and slays, Then one by one, back in the Closet lays.

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted— “Open then the Door!
You know how little time we have to stay, And once departed, may return no more.”

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou,
Beside me singing in the Wilderness, And oh, Wilderness is Paradise enow.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore Came out of the same Door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow, And with my own hand labour’d it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d— “I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”

Into this Universe, and why not knowing, Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky, Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to It for help—for It Rolls impotently on as Thou or I. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a poem of high divine and spiritual meaning. The beauty and simplicity of this poem is so immaculate that people of all faiths and those who have no faith at all can seek divine solace in it.

Omar has used popular metaphors in his passionate praise of wine and love. They are mere symbols of Sufism where wine is the joy of spirit and the love is immense devotion to God.

Omar has presented the nectar of divine ecstasy as a delightful alternative that leads to human enlightenment and eradicates human woe permanently. He has pictured the ordinary joys of life for the worldly men are able to compare the mundane pleasures with the superior joys of spiritual life. The literal meaning of the translated verses is completely absurd but the vast inner meanings are like a golden treasure house.

But the spiritual power inherent in this poem is a characteristic of the Persian poems which have an outer as well as inner meaning. While the west has interpreted Omar’s poems as highly erotic, the East has accepted him as a religious poet. Plumbing into the depths of the poem gives interpretations that make it appear like a shrine which is untouched.

Omar has distinctly suggested that wine symbolizes intoxication of spiritual joy and love. Some translators have interpreted the verses saying that the whole poem is an evocation of agnosticism and has a philosophy which seeks happiness through friendships and the avoidance of pain. It suggests brevity of life and the absence of an afterlife.