Omar Khayyam: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	Ghiyāth ad-Din Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrahīm al-Khaiyāmī an-Nīshaburi • Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrahīm al-Khaiyāmī al-Nīshaburi • Abū ol-Fatḥ ʿOmar ebn Ebrahīm ol-Khayyāmī
Born	May 18, 1048 • Nishapur • Iran
Died	December 4, 1131 (aged 83) • Nishapur • Iran
Subjects Of Study	Euclid • algebra • Islamic calendar

Photos

A blue quadrilateral labeled ABCD with diagonals intersecting inside, forming four triangles; right angles are marked at corners A and B, and tick marks indicate equal side lengths. Text explains triangle congruence and angle equality within the quadrilateral.

Map showing the birthplaces of prominent mathematicians from the Islamic world, marked with city names and mathematician names across the Middle East and Central Asia. Cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Harran, and others are labeled, each associated with a historical mathematician. Modern country boundaries and a locator inset of the region are included.

See All Images →

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

default image

Bahāʾ ad-dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-ʿĀmilī

Syrian-born theologian, mathematician, and jurist

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno

Italian philosopher

default image

Sir William Rowan Hamilton

Irish mathematician and astronomer

default image

Thomas Harriot

English mathematician and astronomer

Aryabhata I

Aryabhata

Indian astronomer and mathematician

default image

Rūmī

Sufi mystic and poet

Ferdowsī (lower left corner) with three poets in a garden, miniature from a Persian manuscript, 17th century; in the British Library

Ferdowsī

Persian poet

default image

al-Kāshī

Persian astronomer and mathematician

default image

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

Persian scholar

Saʿdī, detail of a 17th-century miniature from a manuscript (1581) of the Gulistān; in the British Library (Royal Asiatic Society loan 5).

Saʿdī

Persian poet

Ḥāfeẓ

Ḥāfeẓ

Persian author

default image

al-Karajī

Persian mathematician and engineer

default image

Nāṣer-e Khusraw

Persian author

default image

Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār

Persian poet

default image

Anvarī

Persian poet

default image

Abū al-Wafāʾ

Persian mathematician

Khāqānī

Khāqānī

Persian poet

Nezami

Neẓāmī

Persian-language poet

default image

Saʿd od-Dīn Maḥmūd Shabestarī

Islamic mystic

default image

Jāmī

Persian poet and scholar

Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.

All About Astronomy

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Equations written on blackboard

Numbers and Mathematics

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry