Known in the West as Omar Khayyam, Ghiyath al-Din Abu' l-Fath 'Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami was born and died in Nishapur, Khorasan, Persia (now Iran). Khayyam's given name was 'Umar, while "al-Khayyami" means tent-maker, which may have been the family trade. He was one of the most brilliant figures of Islamic civilization. His passionate and thought-provoking Ruba'iyat ("Quatrains"), in the West far better known than his extraordinary work as a mathematician, is a much-anthologized verse collection that has been praised as one of the treasures of world literature. As a mathematician, Khayyam is noted for his work in cubic equations.

Around 1070, Khayyam traveled to Samarkand, subsequently proceeding to Isfahan, upon the invitation of the Seljuk sultan Jalal-al-Din Malik-shah. Employed by the sultan as the court astronomer, Khayyam supervised a team of royal astronomers whose task it was to compile astronomical tables. Among Khayyam's accomplishments in Isfahan was...