(full name Abu ’l-Fath Omar ibn Ibrahim). Born circa 1048 in Nishapur; died there after 1122. Persian and Tadzhik poet, mathematician, and philosopher.
Omar Khayyam spent most of his life in Balkh, Samarkand, Isfahan, and other cities of Middle Asia and Iran. In his philosophy he was a follower of Aristotle and Avicenna. His extant mathematical works reveal him to be an outstanding scholar. In his treatise On the Proofs of Problems in Algebra and Almucabala he presented in geometric form a systematic exposition of the solution of equations to the third degree inclusively. His treatise The Difficulties of Euclid’s Definitions contains an original theory of parallel lines. In his treatise On the Art of Determining the Quantity of Gold and Silver in a Body Consisting of Them he examined the well-known classical problem solved by Archimedes.
Omar Khayyam won worldwide fame as a poet with his cycle of quatrains, the Rubaiyat. Scholars have not yet ascertained which of the rubaiyat (quatrains) ascribed to him were actually his, but it is possible with reasonable certainty to accept the authenticity of 66 rubaiyat, found in the oldest manuscript copies. Differing radically from existing traditional Persian lyric poetry, Khayyam’s poetry is devoid of pretentious imagery and of affected beauty. It is made to serve Khayyam’s philosophical ideas, which are precisely defined: the grass growing from the dust of the dead symbolizes the idea of the eternal cycle of matter; the potter, his shop, and his jugs symbolize the interrelationship between the Creator, the world, and the individual. The cult of wine, the glorification of the freethinking reveler, and the denial of a life after death constitute a sharp polemic with the prevailing religious dogmas. Khayyam’s style is pithy, the descriptive means are simple, the verse is expressive, and the rhythm is supple. The basic ideas in his poetry are an impassioned castigation of hypocrisy and an appeal for personal freedom.
In medieval Persian and Tadzhik poetry, Khayyam is the only poet in whose verse the lyrical hero emerges significantly as an autonomous individual, alienated from both king and god. A rebel and god-defier and an opponent of force, Khayyam’s hero questions the religious dogma of a divinely reasoned world order. Because Khayyam’s rubaiyat pose many complex problems, they have received differing interpretations from scholars.
M.-N. O. OSMANOV