Omar Khayyam born at Nishapur

1048

A tentmaker's son was born in the Khorasan city who would grow up to write quatrains about wine and transience, calculate the length of the solar year with startling accuracy, and solve cubic equations geometrically. His Rubaiyat would not reach the West for eight centuries, via Edward FitzGerald. FitzGerald's loose, lyrical translation became one of the most quoted poems in the English language.