Omar Khayyam, whose brief biography is presented in this article, was born in Nishapur on May 18, 1048. Nishapur is located in the east of Iran, in the cultural province of Khorasan. This city was a place where many people from various regions of Iran and even from neighboring countries came to the fair. In addition, Nishapur is considered one of the main cultural centers of that time in Iran. Since the 11th century, madrasahs have been operating in the city - schools of the higher and middle type. Omar Khayyam also studied in one of them.
Biography in Russian involves the translation of proper names. However, sometimes readers need the English version as well, for example, when they need to find materials in English. How to translate: "Omar Khayyam: biography"? "Omar Khayyam: biography" is correct.
Childhood and youth of Khayyam
Unfortunately, there is not enough information about them, as well as information about the life of many famous people of ancient times. The biography of Omar Khayyam in his childhood and youth is marked by the fact that he lived in Nishapur. There is no information about his family. The nickname Khayyam, as you know, means "tent master", "tent-man". This allows researchers to make an assumption that his father was a representative of craft circles. The family, at any rate, had sufficient means to provide their son with a decent education.
Training marks his further biography. Omar Khayyam first studied science at the Nishapur Madrasah, which at that time was known as an aristocratic educational institution that trained major officials for the civil service. After that, Omar continued his education in Samarkand and Balkh.
Knowledge gained by Khayyam
He mastered many natural and exact sciences: geometry, mathematics, astronomy, physics. Omar also specifically studied history, Quran studies, theosophy, philosophy and a complex of philological disciplines, which was part of the concept of education at that time. He knew Arabic literature, was fluent in Arabic, and also knew the basics of versification. Omar was skilled in medicine and astrology, and studied music theory.
Khayyam perfectly knew the Koran by heart, could interpret any verse. Therefore, even the most prominent theologians of the East turned to Omar for advice. His ideas, however, did not fit into Islam in the orthodox sense.
First discoveries in mathematics
Firstdiscoveries in the field of mathematics marked his further biography. Omar Khayyam made this science the main focus of his studies. At the age of 25, he makes his first discoveries in mathematics. In the 60s of the 11th century, he published a work on this science, which brought him the fame of an outstanding scientist. Patronizing rulers begin to patronize him.
Life at the court of Khakan Shams al-Mulk
The rulers of the 11th century competed with each other in the splendor of their retinue. They poached educated courtiers. The most influential simply demanded famous poets and scientists to the court. This fate did not spare Omar either. Service at the court was also marked by his biography.
Omar Khayyam first conducted his scientific activities at the court of Prince Khakan Shams al-Mulk, in Bukhor. According to the chroniclers of the 11th century, the ruler of Bukhara surrounded Omar with honor and even put him on the throne next to him.
Invitation to Isfahan
By this time, the empire of the Great Seljuks had grown and established itself. Tugulbek, a Seljuk ruler, conquered Baghdad in 1055. He declared himself the lord of the new empire, the sultan. The caliph lost power, and this marked an era of cultural flourishing, called the Eastern Renaissance.
These events affected the fate of Omar Khayyam. His biography continues with a new period. Omar Khayyam in 1074 was invited to the royal court to serve in the city of Isfahan. Sultan Malik Shah ruled at this time. This year was marked by the beginning of a 20-year period of his fruitful scientific activity, which, according to the results achieved, turned out to be brilliant. ATAt that time, the city of Isfahan was the capital of the Seljuk state, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the borders of China.
Life at the court of Malik Shah
Omar became an honorary close associate of the great Sultan. According to legend, Nizam al-Mulk even offered him to govern Nishapur and the surrounding region. Omar said that he did not know how to forbid and order, which is necessary to control people. Then the Sultan appointed him a salary of 10 thousand gold dinars a year (a huge amount) so that Khayyam could freely engage in science.
Observatory Management
Khayyam was invited to manage the palace observatory. The Sultan gathered the best astronomers at his court and allocated large sums for the purchase of expensive equipment. Omar was tasked with creating a new calendar. In the 11th century in Central Asia and Iran, 2 systems simultaneously existed: solar and lunar calendars. Both were imperfect. By March 1079, the problem was solved. The calendar proposed by Khayyam was 7 seconds more accurate than the current Gregorian calendar (developed in the 16th century)!
Omar Khayyam conducted astronomical observations at the observatory. In his era, astronomy was closely connected with astrology, which in the Middle Ages was a science of practical necessity. And Omar was part of the retinue of Malik Shah as his adviser and astrologer. His fame as a soothsayer was very great.
New achievements in mathematics
At the court in Isfahan, Omar Khayyam also studied mathematics. In 1077 he createdgeometric work devoted to the interpretation of the difficult positions of Euclid. For the first time, he gave an exhaustive classification of the main types of equations - cubic, square, linear (25 types in total), and also created a theory for solving cubic equations. It was he who first raised the question of the connection between the science of geometry and algebra.
For a long time, Khayyam's books were unknown to European scientists who created non-Euclidean geometry and a new higher algebra. And they had to re-travel the difficult and long path, which had already been paved by Khayyam 5-6 centuries before them.
Philosophy
Khayyam also de alt with the problems of philosophy, studying the scientific heritage of Avicenna. He translated some of his writings from Arabic into Farsi, showing innovation, since at that time the role of the language of science was played by Arabic.
The first philosophical treatise of his was created in 1080 ("Treatise on being and duty"). Khayyam stated that he was a follower of Avicenna, and also expressed his opinions about Islam from the standpoint of Eastern Aristotelianism. Omar, recognizing the existence of God as the root cause of existence, argued that the specific order of things is determined by the laws of nature, this is not at all the result of divine wisdom. These views were strongly at odds with Muslim dogmatics. In the treatise, they were outlined concisely and restrainedly, in the Aesopian language of allegories and omissions. Much more boldly, sometimes defiantly boldly, anti-Islamic sentiments were expressed in poetry by Omar Khayyam.
Biography: Khayyam's poems
Poems he wrote only rubaiyat, ie. quatrains in which the 1st, 2nd, 4th or all four stanzas rhymed. He created them throughout his life. Khayyam never wrote laudatory odes to rulers. Rubai were not a serious form of poetry, and as a poet Omar Khayyam was not recognized by his contemporaries. And he himself did not attach much importance to his poems. They arose, most likely, impromptu, in passing.
The shaken position of Omar at court
At the end of 1092, a 20-year quiet period of his life at the court of Malik Shah ended. At this time, the Sultan died under unclear circumstances. And Nizam al-Mulk was killed a month before. The death of two patrons of Khayyam is attributed to the Ismailis, representatives of the religious and political movement directed against the Turkic nobility. After the death of Malik Shah, they terrorized the Isfahan nobility. The reprisals and denunciations were born out of fear of the secret murders that flooded the city. The struggle for power began, the great empire began to fall apart.
The position of Omar at the court of the widow of Malik Shah Turkan Khatun was also shaken. The woman did not trust those close to Nizam al-Mulk. Omar Khayyam worked for some time at the observatory, but did not receive any of the previous maintenance or support. At the same time, he served as a doctor and astrologer at Turkan Khatun.
How Khayyam's court career ended
The story of how his court career failed has become a textbook today. It is attributed to 1097. Sanjar, the youngest son of Malik Shah, once fell ill with chickenpox, and Khayyam, who treated him, inadvertently expressed doubt that the 11-year-old boy would recover. The words spoken to the vizier were overheard by the servant and passed on to the sick heir. Later becoming a sultan, who ruled the Seljuk state from 1118 to 1157, Sanjar harbored a dislike for Khayyam for the rest of his life.
After the death of Malik Shah, Isfahan lost its position as the main scientific center and royal residence. It fell into disrepair and, in the end, the observatory was closed, and the capital was transferred to the city of Merv (Khorosan). Omar left the court forever, returned to Nishapur.
Life in Nishapur
He lived here until his death, only occasionally leaving the city to visit Balkh or Bukhora. In addition, he made a long pilgrimage to Muslim shrines in Mecca. Khayyam taught at the Nishapur Madrasah. He had a small circle of students. Sometimes he received scientists who sought a meeting with him, took part in scientific disputes.
The last period of his life was extremely difficult, connected with hardships, as well as with longing, which was generated by spiritual loneliness. In the Nishapur years, the glory of Omar as an astronomer and mathematician was added to the glory of an apostate and a freethinker. The anger of the zealots of Islam was caused by his philosophical views.
Scientific and philosophical heritage of Khayyam
The biography of Omar Khayyam (short) does not allow us to talk in detail about his works. We only note that his scientific and philosophical heritage is small. UnlikeAvicenna, his predecessor, Khayyam did not create an integral philosophical system. His treatises concern only certain questions of philosophy, although the most important ones. Some of them were written in response to the request of secular or clergy people. Only 5 philosophical writings of Omar have survived to this day. All of them are concise, brief, sometimes occupying only a few pages.
Pilgrimage to Mecca and village life
After some time, clashes with the clergy became so dangerous that Khayyam was forced to make a difficult and long pilgrimage to Mecca (in his old age). In this era, the journey to the holy places sometimes lasted for years. Omar settled for some time in Baghdad. Teaching at Nizamiyeh marked his biography.
Omar Khayyam, about whose life, unfortunately, not much is known, having returned home, he began to live in a village near Nishapur in a secluded house. According to medieval biographers, he was not married and had no children. He lived in isolation, in constant danger due to suspicion and persecution.
How Omar Khayyam spent the last hours of his life
A short biography in Russian of this scientist, philosopher and poet was written by many authors. All sources agree that the exact year of his death is unknown. Its most probable date is 1123. From a source of the 12th century, a story has come down to us about how Khayyam spent the last hours of his life. I heard this story from his relative Abu-l-Hasan Beyhaki. On this day, Omar carefully studied the "Book of Healing" written by Avicenna. Having reached the section "Single andmultiple", Khayyam put a toothpick between the sheets and asked to call the right people in order to make a will. Omar did not eat or drink all that day. After finishing the last prayer, in the evening he bowed to the ground. Then Khayyam said, turning to God that he him as much as possible, and that knowing him is the way to him. And he died. The photo below is his grave in Nishapur.
From what other sources can one learn about the life of a man like Omar Khayyam? The biography of the TSB (Great Soviet Encyclopedia) will suit you if only basic information about it is enough. You can also refer to editions of Khayyam's books, which often contain descriptions of his life in the preface. We have presented only basic information about such a person as Omar Khayyam. Biography, his nationality, stories from his life, poems and treatises - all this is still of interest to many people to this day. This speaks of the great significance of the legacy that he left, of the great role in the history of the personality of Omar Khayyam.
