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 parts of Iran and even from neighboring countries gathered at the fair. In addition, Nishapur is considered one of the main cultural centers of the time in Iran. In the city, from the 11th century, madrassas operated - schools of higher and secondary type. Omar Khayyam studied in one of them.
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Khayyam's childhood and youth
Unfortunately, information about them is not enough, as well as information about the life of many famous people of ancient times. The biography of Omar Khayyam in childhood and youth is marked by the fact that he lived in Nishapur. Information about his family has not been preserved. The nickname Khayyam, as you know, means “tent master”, “tent”. This allows researchers to make the assumption that his father was a representative of craft circles. The family, in any case, had sufficient means to provide its son with a decent education.
The training noted his further biography. Omar Khayyam first comprehended science in the Nishapur Madrasah, which at that time was known as an aristocratic educational institution, which prepared large officials for the public service. After that, Omar continued his education in Samarkand and Balkh.
Knowledge gained by Khayyam
He possessed many natural and exact sciences: geometry, mathematics, astronomy, physics. Omar also specially studied history, coranology, Theosophy, philosophy and a set of philological disciplines, which was part of the concept of education at that time. He knew Arabic literature, was fluent in the Arabic language, and also knew the basics of versification. Omar was skilled in medicine and astrology, and also studied music theory.
Khayyam perfectly knew the Qur'an by heart, any ayah could interpret. Therefore, even the most prominent theologians of the East turned to Omar for consultations. His ideas, however, did not fit into Islam in its orthodox understanding.
First discoveries in mathematics
The first discoveries 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 publishes work on this science, which brings him the glory of an outstanding scientist. Patrons of patronage begin to protect him.
Life at the court of Hakan Shams al-Mulka
The rulers of the 11th century competed with each other in the splendor of the retinue. They lured educated courtiers. The most influential simply demanded famous poets and scientists to the court. This fate also did not bypass Omar. The service at the court also noted his biography.
Omar Khayyam first conducted his scientific activities at the court of Prince Hakan Shams al-Mulka, in Buhor. According to the testimonies of the chroniclers of the 11th century, the Bukhara ruler surrounded Omar with honor and even put him on a throne next to him.
Invitation to Isfahan
By this time, the empire of the Great Seljuks had grown and established itself. Tugulbek, Seljuk ruler, conquered Baghdad in 1055. He declared himself the lord of the new empire, the Sultan. The Caliph lost power, and this marked the era of cultural prosperity, called the Eastern Renaissance.
These events were reflected in the fate of Omar Khayyam. A new period continues his biography. Omar Khayyam in 1074 was invited to the royal court to serve in the city of Isfahan. At this time, the Sultan Malik Shah ruled. This year was marked by the beginning of a 20-year period of his fruitful scientific activity, which turned out to be brilliant according to the results achieved. At this 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 approximate of the great sultan. According to legend, Nizam al-Mulk even invited him to control Nishapur and the surrounding area. Omar said he does not know how to prohibit and order what is necessary for managing people. Then the sultan appointed him a salary of 10 thousand gold dinars per 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 acquisition of expensive equipment. Omar was tasked with creating a new calendar. In the 11th century, two systems simultaneously existed in Central Asia and Iran: the 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 included in the retinue of Malik Shah as his adviser and astrologer. His fame as a soothsayer was very great.
New advances in mathematics
At the court in Isfahan, Omar Khayyam also studied mathematics. In 1077, he created a geometric work dedicated to the interpretation of the difficult provisions 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 new higher algebra. And they had to re-go the hard and long way, which for 5-6 centuries before them was already laid by Khayyam.
Philosophy
Khayyam also dealt with problems of philosophy, studying the scientific heritage of Avicenna. He translated some of his works into Arabic from Farsi, showing innovation, since at that time the Arabic language played the role of the language of science.
His first philosophical treatise was created in 1080 ("A treatise on being and duty"). Khayyam stated that he is a follower of Avicenna, and also expressed his views on Islam from the position 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 the result of divine wisdom. These views diverged greatly from Muslim dogma. In the treatise they were stated in a concise and restrained, Aesopian language of allegories and omissions. Omar Khayyam expressed poetry much more boldly, sometimes defiantly insolently, in the poetry of Omar Khayyam.
Biography: verses of Khayyam
He wrote verses only ruby, i.e. quatrains in which the 1st, 2nd, 4th or all four stanzas rhymed. He created them throughout his life. Khayyam never wrote eulogies to rulers. Rubai were not a serious form of poetry, and as a poet Omar Khayyam was not recognized by contemporaries. And he himself did not attach much importance to his verses. They arose, most likely, impromptu, in passing.
Omar's staggered position at court
At the end of 1092, the 20-year-old calm period of his life at the court of Malik Shah ended. At this time, the sultan died under mysterious circumstances. And Nizam al-Mulk was killed a month before. The sources of the Middle Ages attribute the death of two patrons of Khayyam 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. Violence and denunciations were born of fear of 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 also shook. The woman did not trust the approximate Nizam al-Mulka. Omar Khayyam worked for some time at the observatory, but did not receive any 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 crashed has become a textbook today. It belongs to the year 1097. Sanjar, the youngest son of Malik Shah, once fell ill with chickenpox, and Khayyam, who was treating him, inadvertently expressed doubt that the 11-year-old boy would recover. The words spoken to the visor 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 of Khayyam for his whole life.
After the death of Malik Shah, Isfahan lost the position of the main scientific center and the royal residence. It fell into disrepair and, in the end, the observatory was closed, and the capital was moved to the city of Merv (Khorosan). Omar left the yard forever, returned to Nishapur.
Life in Nishapur
Here he lived until his death, only occasionally leaving the city to visit Balkh or Bukhora. In addition, he made a lengthy pilgrimage to Muslim shrines in Mecca. Khayyam taught at the Nishapur Madrasah. He had a small circle of students. Sometimes he took scientists looking for meetings with him, took part in scientific disputes.
The last period of his life was extremely difficult, associated with deprivation, as well as with longing, which was generated by spiritual loneliness. In the Nishapur years, the fame of the apostate and freethinker was added to the fame of Omar as an astronomer and mathematician. The anger of the zealots of Islam was caused by his philosophical views.
The scientific and philosophical heritage of Khayyam
The biography of Omar Khayyam (short) does not allow us to speak in detail about his works. We only note that its scientific and philosophical heritage is small. Unlike Avicenna, his predecessor, Khayyam did not create a holistic philosophical system. His treatises deal only with individual issues of philosophy, although the most important. Some of them are written in response to the request of secular or clergy. Only 5 philosophical works of Omar have survived to this day. All of them are concise, concise, 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 elderly years). In this era, the journey to the holy places sometimes lasted for years. Omar settled for a while in Baghdad. Teaching in Nizamiye noted his biography.
Omar Khayyam, whose life is known, unfortunately, is not much, returning home, 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.
