Life
Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) made landmark advances in algebra, giving geometric solutions to cubic equations, and led the reform of the Persian (Jalali) calendar with remarkable accuracy. A philosopher and astronomer of the Seljuk court, he is known in the wider world through the Rubaiyat, the quatrains attributed to him and famously rendered into English by Edward FitzGerald — verses whose authorship and interpretation scholars continue to debate.