Who was Omar Khayyam? Google celebrates the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet

OMAR Khayyam is today celebrated by Google for his outstanding work as a mathematician, astronomer and poet.

But what else is he remembered for and what did he achieve? Here’s the lowdown…

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He was born in 1048 in Nishapur, northeastern Iran, and died in 1131 in his birth place[/caption]

Who was Omar Khayyam?

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet.

He was born in 1048 in Nishapur, northeastern Iran, and died in 1131 in his birth place.

He studied under the Arab scholar, Sheikh Muhammad Mansuri in present day Afghanistan.

Omar spent most of his life near the court of the Karakhanid and Seljuq rulers in the period which witnessed the First Crusade.

Omar’s mathematical accomplishments include the classifications and solutions of cubic equations.

His work contributed significantly to the development of non-Euclidean geometry.

As an astronomer, he designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year cycle.

He is best known in the west for the poem, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

It was translated into English poetry by Edward Fitzgerald in the 1860’s.

In 1970 a crater on the Moon was named for him.

Getty - Contributor

As an astronomer, he designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year cycle[/caption]

What is a Google Doodle?

In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second ‘o’ of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.

The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.

Getty - Contributor

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet[/caption]