Omar Khayyam

1048-1131

Source

          Omar Khayyam was born in Nishapur in Khorassan, Persia on May 8^th 1048. Even though through history, he is known as ‘Omar Khayyam’ that is in fact not his true birth name. His full name was ‘Ghiyath al-Din Abu’l-Fath umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami.’ In this, the section stating ‘al-Khayyami’ translated into English is ‘tent maker.’ This was said to probably his father’s, Ibrahim, work and trade. In the year of 1079, he was invitedt o take place in an astronomical research project in which he worked on for eighteen years. All through Omar’s life, he was never married. This was probably due to the fact that he basically never had time, he was so focused and busy. Omar then died in his home town of Nishapur in December 4, 1131.

         Omar made many mathematical contributions along with various others. One of his most famous contributions was his discovery on how to find the solution to all cubic equations with a positive root. He discovered this by intersecting a parabola with a circle. Omar is known to have somewhat a double life. Back when he was alive he was mainly known for his large intellect in the field of mathematics and various others but today, he is mainly known for being the author of The Rubaiyat

. Omar also studied discoveries that weren’t meant to be discovered until years after he died. Some examples of these things were:

·  In his study of Elucid's Elements, he considered possible reason for why Euclid’s parallel postulate existed 

·  Because of his study of cubic equations, he then stumbled across a discovery today known as Pascal’s Triangles in which he studied and maintained a thorough understanding of it. 

·  And because of his study of Pascal’s Triangles, Omar then studied and understood the Pythagorean Theorem years before Pythagoras

even came across this discovery.

     After Omar and his two collaborators finished their astronomical research project, all their effort had left them with a set of Astronomical Tabled named “Al-zij al-Malikshahi.’ This was named after their Royal Patron. Later, Omar was sent an invitation from the Sultan of The Great Seluq Empire to reform the Gregorian.

     Many events were taking place around Omar that didn’t exactly make his life for the better. Such as wars and revolutions, and so on. One important events that had a huge impact on Omar’s life in Nishapur were the Seljuq Turks who invaded Southwestern Asia in 1040. When Persia was invaded and captured as well, Omar had to grow up and live in this foreign unstable government. There were many wars happening. One of the major wars that took place in Persia in this time period was the First Crusade. The First Crusade was when Christians captured the city of Jerusalem in July of 1099, establishing The Kingdom of Jerusalem and other Crusader states which then lead to the Second Crusade. Fighting in the Crusades was a legendary group of Christian Knights named the Knights Templars. They were the ones who fought against the Muslims in the First Crusade.

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