The Rubaiyat

Omar Khayyám (10481131) was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and poet who wrote treatises on topics as diverse as mechanics, geography and music. His significance as a philosopher and teacher, and his few remaining philosophical works, have not received the same attention as his scientific and poetic writings. Zamakhshari referred to him as the philosopher of the world. Many sources have testified that he taught for decades the philosophy of Ibn Sina in Nishapur where Khayyám was born and buried and where his mausoleum today remains a masterpiece of Iranian architecture visited by many people every year.In the 17th century, Khayyáms work was translated into European languages, and he became the most famous poet of the East in the West with the Rubáiyát. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Khayyám (10481131). A Persian ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistechs) per line, hence the word "Rubáiyát" (derived from the Arabic root word for "four"), meaning "quatrains."