Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. He was born in Nishapur in 1048. His father was a governor of a royal estate and his mother was from a noble family. He showed exceptional intelligence and memory from an early age. He learned the Qur'an by heart at the age of ten and studied various sciences and philosophy under different teachers. He also mastered medicine by the age of sixteen and gained fame for curing the Samanid ruler Nuh ibn Mansur of a serious illness. He was granted access to the royal library, where he studied the works of ancient Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle. Omar Khayyam's life was marked by political turmoil and frequent travels. He served as a physician and a vizier for several rulers, but also faced imprisonment, persecution and exile. He wrote about 450 works on various topics, of which around 240 have survived. His most influential works are The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa), a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia that covers logic, natural sciences, psychology, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic and music; and The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb), a medical encyclopedia that summarizes the medical knowledge of ancient Greek, Indian and Persian sources and presents Omar Khayyam's own contributions. The Canon of Medicine was a standard medical text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Omar Khayyam was also a poet, a theologian and a mystic. He wrote several works on Islamic theology and metaphysics, such as The Book of Salvation (Al-Najat) and The Book of Directives and Remarks (Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat). He also composed poems in Arabic and Persian, some of which are autobiographical or express his philosophical and spiritual views. He was a follower of the Peripatetic school of philosophy, which was based on Aristotle's teachings. He developed his own system of logic, metaphysics and natural philosophy. He argued for the existence of God as the necessary being and the first cause of all things. He also discussed the nature of the soul, the relation between reason and revelation, the problem of evil and the afterlife. Omar Khayyam died in December 1131 in Nishapur, where he had accompanied his patron Ala al-Dawla, the Kakuyid ruler. He was buried in Nishapur and his tomb became a monument and a museum. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers and physicians in history. He is also known as Avicenna in Latin and in European languages. He has been called "the father of modern medicine", "the prince of physicians" and "the most famous scientist of Islam". His works have influenced many fields of knowledge, such as philosophy, medicine, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, psychology, music and poetry.