Omar Khayyam dies at Nishapur

1134

The Persian polymath whose astronomical tables had corrected the Islamic calendar, whose algebra had solved cubic equations geometrically, and whose quatrains would seven centuries later become an English Victorian bestseller, was buried in his hometown beneath blossoming almond trees. Edward FitzGerald's 1859 translation of his Rubaiyat would make Khayyam the most quoted Persian poet in the English language, though scholars still debate how many of the attributed verses are truly his.