Geeks in History: Omar Khayyám
In this week’s article, I’m going to be giving the mathematicians a little bit of love again by focusing on one of Persia’s greatest math minds, Omar Khayyám. Perhaps some of you have heard of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, or the “Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyám” as parodied in an old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, well, keep reading! He’s where a good bit of our modern geometric algebra came from!
He was born on May, 18, 1048 CE as Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nishapuri al-Khayyami in Nishapur, Iran, which at the time rivaled Cairo as a cultural center, and spent part of his childhood years in Balkh, now part of Afghanistan. The region was turbulent at the time, but Omar Khayyám flourished in his arts, writing a number of literary works as well as mathematical. He wrote a work, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, which later found its way to Europe and offered great influence on the scholars of the time. It was well known for listing his general methods for solving cubic equations. In other works, Khayyám went as far as to advance the work of the Greek mathematician Euclid, developing his own different strain of geometry.
Omar Khayyám
Khayyám contributed quite a bit more in the realm of geometry. In his Explanations of the difficulties in the postulates in Euclid’s Elements, he argued against Euclid’s parallel postulate, leading again into non-Euclidean geometry. Furthermore, his work can be considered the first systematic study and the first exact method of working cubic equations. He had further works on a binomial theorem and root extraction, and spent time dissecting the Saccheri quadrilateral. He was also able to apply his mathematical skills to astronomy, calculating that a solar year is 365.24219858156 days, and his calendar was more accurate than the Gregorian calendar that followed 500 years later.
Not only was Khayyám a brilliant scientist and mathematician, he was also a poet and philosopher. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is a collection of quatrains with a number of translations in existence, varying in accuracy and poetic liberties. The first such was translated by Edward FitzGerald, called a “Rubáiyát” as a ruba’i is a two-line stanza with two parts, a quatrain, and so the Persian word was adapted. Much of his poetry could be considering mystical in nature and illustrate his Sufi background. In his other writings, he gave a rather humanistic approach to the teachings of his time, though some have assumed he might have even been an atheist as early translations of Khayyám’s work illustrated a hedonist turn, but with later translations, the mystical and spiritual aspects of his material as they relate to his Sufi background become clearer.
Omar Khayyám died in December 4, 1131 CE in Nishapur, Iran. In a biography by Ali ibn Zaidu’l-Baihaqi, Omar was reading Avicenna’s Book of Healing when he called his students to him to tell them his final instructions and leave his will. Among his last words was this: “Oh Lord, I have known You according to the sum of my ability. Pardon me since verily my knowledge is my recommendation to You.” For a man devout in his studies and dedicated to expanding the realm of mathematics and geometry, he’s left a lasting impact on the world today, beyond just his “Ruby Yacht”.
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