A Brief Omar Khayyam Bio

Khayyam (Omar) or Umar Khaiyam, Persian astronomer, poet, b. Naishapur Khorassan, in the second half of the eleventh century, and was distinguished by his reformation of the calendar as well as by his verses (Rubiyat), which E. Fitzgerald has so finely rendered in English. He alarmed his contemporaries and made himself obnoxious to the Sufis. Died about 1123. Omar laughed at the prophets and priests, and told men to be happy instead of worrying themselves about God and the Hereafter. He makes his soul say, “I myself am Heaven and Hell.”