In 1859, an English writer from Bredfield, Suffolk introduced to the Western world the deeds of an outstanding man from the 12th century Muslim realm. The writer's name was Edward FitzGerald. His translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, penetrated the English culture with its appeal to such extent that elements of it are recognized today as being genuinely English. Familiar to many native English speakers in their English form, these Persian verses from the 12th century are some of the mostly cited lyric poems. Many have slipped in as common expressions, such as "Ah take the cash, and let the credit go", "The flower that once has blown for ever dies", and "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou". Of all the verses of Khayyam's, the most popular one is this: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.

When Edward FitzGerald first published the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1859, the modest looking and anonymous booklet did not prove to be very impressive to the general public. This may have come as an unexpected disappointment to FitzGerald, for his intention was to convey the authentic spirit of the Rubaiyat, albeit the usage of his own metaphors where he saw fit. This translation of Omar Khayyam's poetic expression was still perhaps rather odd for its new readership. One year later, in 1860, however, the poem came across the hands of people of influence such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and some time later - Algernon Swinburne. This started a wave of increasing interest in the poet, mathematician, and astronomer Omar Khayyam.

The Life of Omar Khayyam

In the year 1048, on the 18th of May was born Ghiyath Ad-din Abu Al-Fath 'Umar Ibn Ibrahim Al-Khaiyami An-Nishaburi as the name sounds in Arabic. In Persian, the same name would genuinely be pronounced as Abu Ol-Fath 'Omar Ebn Ebrahim Ol-Khayyami. Known in the West simply as Omar Khayyam, this Muslim man was born in Nishapur, Iran. The name Khayyam, meaning tentmaker, suggests that his father's business was in tent trading. In Nishapur, Omar received a decent education in the sciences, and in philosophy in particular. He later moved to Balkh, and then to Samarkand to pursue his interest in the study of algebra. There, he produced a notable work on this subject matter.

Advancing in his academic career, Omar Khayyam was noticed by the Seljuq Sultan Malik Shah, who invited the emerging intellectual to head his astronomical observations initiative. The purpose of this undertaking was characterized by the reorganization of the calendar. For achieving this task, Omar Khayyam and a team of astronomers headed the construction of an observatory in the town of Esfahan.

In the year 1092, Sultan Malik Shah died, and Khayyam found himself without a direct sponsor. The situation at the time was such that scholarly men of learning, even those as learned as Omar, would find it difficult to get by, except if they enjoyed the assistance of a ruler at one of the numerous courts. In this regard, Omar Khayyam wrote:

"I was unable to devote myself to the learning of this algebra and the continued concentration upon it, because of obstacles in the vagaries of time which hindered me; for we have been deprived of all the people of knowledge save for a group, small in number, with many troubles, whose concern in life is to snatch the opportunity, when time is asleep, to devote themselves meanwhile to the investigation and perfection of a science; for the majority of people who imitate philosophers confuse the true with the false, and they do nothing but deceive and pretend knowledge, and they do not use what they know of the sciences except for base and material purposes; and if they see a certain person seeking for the right and preferring the truth, doing his best to refute the false and untrue and leaving aside hypocrisy and deceit, they make a fool of him and mock him."

Given the circumstances, he decided this was the right time to go on a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy town of Mecca. After coming back from his pilgrimage, Omar Khayyam became a professor in Neyshabur, and again worked for the court on occasion by foreseeing affairs, which were yet to happen. He studied, and in parallel taught, such sciences as philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, jurisprudence, history, and medicine. He was admired by colleagues and students for his emergent skills. A colleague student of philosophy wrote that Omar was "...endowed with sharpness of wit and the highest natural powers." Omar was also very fond of poetry, and devoted time to write poems himself. Some of his surviving prose work also includes several excerpts on metaphysics and an essay on Euclid.

Omar Khayyam in Europe

As already mentioned, some seven hundred years after he wrote his poems, Omar Khayyam was to rise to fame in Europe. Through Edward FitzGerald's translation of Omar's work, the roba'iyat poetical form or "quatrains," was introduced to the West. The quatrain is a piece of verse made up of four rhyming lines. Omar Khayyam's quatrain, or roba'iyat, had the third line not rhyming with the first, the second, and the forth - which rhymed with each other. Here follows an excerpt from one of the more famous sections of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by FitzGerald:
 

Some for the Glories of This World; and some

Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;

Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!

Look to the blowing Rose about us--Lo,
Laughing, she says, into the world I blow,
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.

And those who husbanded the Golden grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or two--is gone.

Omar was thus writing his verses in accord with the Persian literature of the period. In it, the roba'iyat genre of poetry was generally a quatrain where the afore described rhyme scheme aaba. The aaba form was typical of Persia and was introduced to other countries under Persian influence.

The roba'iyat of Omar Khayyam were later translated into most of the European languages and have had noteworthy, although sometimes implicit, impact on the European outlook about Eastern and Persian cultures and literature. It is interesting to note that each of the original quatrains of Omar's were written separately for a special occurrence and was meant to be admired on its own. FitzGerald, in his translation of Omar's roba'iyat, sought to merge the different verses into one composition. He interrelated them into a sort of a single opus work, producing a meaningful overall narrative.

Upon careful review of Omar Khayyam's quatrains, a picture of the author's mind could be inferred. Omar must have been a person interested in the passing nature of life and its insecurity, exploring this issue to a considerable extent, as can be seen in the following passage.

Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Asking, What Lamp had Destiny to guide
Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?
And--A blind understanding! Heav'n replied.

Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn...

It seems he found no permanent satisfactory explanations for his spiritual bewilderment. Consequently, he tried to indulge himself in the positive and jubilant material qualities of life. The humble things he found pleasure in, however, speak of his undemanding and clear-cut concern about the essential philosophical issues: life, death, happiness, faith, and the like.

It is interesting to note that there has been some concern as to the authenticity of Omar's poetry. To a great extent, this is so because no sources during Omar Khayyam's lifetime have been found to have any reference to his poetic skills. Only some two hundred years later did several roba'iyat emerge bearing his signature. Indeed, the quatrain was an easy form to use - many have been scribbled on Persian pottery of the 13th century - and many times the same verse has been attributed to many different authors. Such assertions cannot be proven however, as there appear to have been found 13th century texts, at least 250 of which have been identified as genuine roba'iyat by Omar Khayyam.

The usage of metaphors in the Roba'iyat of Omar Khayyam

A metaphor is a linguistic term, which refers to the association of two unlike entities by comparing one to the other. A metaphor is sometimes incorrectly confused with a simile. A simile uses the words "like" and "as" to construct the comparison. In a metaphor, however, the comparison is not characterized by such direct explicitness.

The metaphor can be considered the foundation on which poetry flows. In his poetry, Omar Khayyam very wittily creates original metaphors on the basis of existing, commonly used ones. "The Bird of Time has but a little way / To flutter-and the Bird is on the Wing" clearly illustrates this technique.

Omar Khayyam's contribution to Islamic medieval mathematics

The eminent labor in mathematics by medieval Muslim researchers, notably Al Biruni and Ibn Sina, was very much enhanced and developed by Omar Khayyam. Despite all hardships pertaining to his work, Omar wrote a number of books on mathematics. These include the Problems of Arithmetic, which combines the subjects of algebra and music; and his most famous mathematical labor - "Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra". In these books, among other discoveries, Omar Khayyam exposes a general method of extracting roots of any chosen high degree. These works are lost, and the method of extracting roots as well as other advancements are known through secondary sources. Omar's Algebra included the very first inclusive treatment of the solution of cubic equations. This was achieved by using the method of conic sections. Despite these advancements for his time, Omar displayed modesty and forethought by publicly saying that he hoped his successors shall succeed where he had failed.

In his own lifetime, in his native realm, Omar Khayyam was celebrated as a gifted and shrewd scientist and researcher. In more recent times and in distant lands to the West, the Khayyam name is more akin to the rubaiyat poems that FitGerald translated into English. Throughout the ages to our present time though, Omar Khayyam deserves to be remembered as both - a great philosophical poet and an astute mathematician.