Omar Khayyam(1048-1123)

Born in a wealthy province of Seljuk-ruled Persia, Omar Khayyam was educated well as a youth and became fascinated by science, especially astronomy and mathematics. He built an observatory and created the Jalalaean Calender that was far more accurate than the Julian Calender in use by his European contemporaries. But it was his poetry that would earn him eternal fame. Edward FitzGerald's translation of his Rubaiyat into English sparked interest in his exotic poems and ruminations on the fragility of human life and the nature of the universe. Ironically, Omar Khayyam was not in his own lifetime remembered as a literary talent. His love of wine ("it drives sorrow from the heart") and money ("Cash is better than a thousand promises") and the generally pessimistic nature of his poetry did not make him popular among his Muslim peers. After going on hajj to Mecca in 1092, he returned to his native city of Nishapur to teach. Omar Khayyam died on December 4, 1131.