Omar Khayyam - Life and Time

This site is about Omar Khayyam, his life and time and his contribution to humanity especially to the Persian culture. He was hated by his adversaries and religious foes alike. His contribution to poetry is his famous Rubaiyat which numbered from 13 to 1600+. In this blog the intention is to piece together the time in which Khayyam grew up, his education and how the surrounding environment forced him to keep his poetry secret and only 50 years after his death was recorded as foot notes in various books.

With the defeat of the Sassanians, at the hands of the Arabs waging the banner of Islam over fourteen centuries ago, the fate of the Zarathusthrianism faith in Iran was sealed by the Arab rulers who had no intention of respecting the vanquished peoples rights to basic human freedoms including freedom of worship. Zarathusthrian literature and places of worship were by and large either destroyed or converted into places of worship of the new faith. The portion of the population who resisted conversion, found themselves subject to severe hardship. These measures took their toll on the once proud and literate Zarathusthrians in their homeland.

The Islamic Arab Empire established across the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Iberia, and in parts of India in the 8th century made significant contributions towards mathematics. Although most Islamic texts on mathematics were written in Arabic, they were not all written by Arabs. Some of the most important Islamic mathematicians were Persian, including Khayyam.

Toghril Beg, the founder of the Seljugh dynasty, had made Esfahan the capital of his domains and his grandson Malik-Shah was the ruler of that city from 1073. An invitation was sent to Khayyam from Malik-Shah and from his vazir Nezam al-Molk asking Khayyam to go to Esfahan to set up an Observatory there. Other leading astronomers were also brought to the Observatory in Esfahan and for 18 years Khayyam led the scientists and produced work of outstanding quality. It was a period of peace during which the political situation allowed Khayyam the opportunity to devote himself entirely to his scholarly work.

When the Malek Shah determined to reform the calendar, Omar was one of the eight learned men employed to do it. The result was the Jalali era (so called from Jalal-ud-din, one of the king's names). Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days. Two comments on this result. Firstly it shows an incredible confidence to attempt to give the result to this degree of accuracy. We know now that the length of the year is changing in the sixth decimal place over a person's lifetime. Secondly it is outstandingly accurate. For comparison the length of the year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, while today it is 365.242190 days.

In 1092 political events ended Khayyam's period of peaceful existence. Malik-Shah died in that year, a month after his vazir Nezam al-Mulk had been murdered on the road from Esfahan to Baghdad by the terrorist movement called the Assassins. Malek-Shah's second wife (Turkan Khatun) took over as ruler for two years but she had argued with Nezam al-Mulk so now those whom he had supported found that support withdrawn. Funding to run the Observatory ceased and Khayyam's calendar reform was put on hold. Khayyam also came under attack from the orthodox Muslims who felt that Khayyam's questioning mind did not conform to the faith. He expressed his feelings in his poem the Rubaiyat.

It has been suggested that the Rubaiyat is a religious allegory. This is based on the assumption that Khayyam was a Sufi, as were many of the best Persian poets of the period. The Sufis were pantheists who believed that the individual soul, once part of God, could find salvation only in being reabsorbed in Him again, after renunciation of all earthly desires and pleasures.

Because the Mohammadans considered them heretics, they had to express their doctrines symbolically. However, Khayyam ridiculed these religious mystics and antagonized them. Yet, since he believed in acquiescing to conditions as he saw them and had little faith in the pleasures of the after life, this is probably why his works were little read in his homeland (Persia - Iran) for centuries. Niether Cowell, nor FitzGerald, considered the poet a Sufi and modern researchers have the same tendency to support this view.

It is no surprise that it took more than 800 years for scholars to discover this alien culture and spread his poetic genius to the world. Khayyam's poetic magnet is getting more powerful with the passing of time.