DTFC Omar Khayyam Memorial Tournament

"It’s too bad if a heart lacks fire,

and is deprived of the light

of a heart ablaze.

The day on which you are

without passionate love

is the most wasted day of your life."

Omar Khayyam

English-speaking readers know of his extraordinary work through the translation of his collection of hundreds of quatrains (or rubais) in Rubaiyat, an 1859 work on the “the Astronomer-Poet of Persia”.

Omar Khayyam was born on May 18 in the trading city of Nishapur in what today is known as Iran in the year 1048.

Khayyam’s father was Ebrahim Khayyami, a wealthy physician, his mother’s name remains unknown.

His origins are still unclear, but some authors have argued that Omar’s father earned a living by being a merchant and making tents, as his last name means tentmaker.

Khayyam’s family were Muslims, but his father was perceived as non-strict, he soon employed mathematician Bahmanyar bin Marzban, a devotee of the ancient Persian religion or Zoroastrianism, to tutor Omar.

Khayyam’s received a thorough education in science, philosophy, and mathematics.

In 1066, when Khayyam celebrated his 18th birthday, his father Ebrahim died just a few months before his tutor’s death.

These events marked the end of an era in the young pupil’s life, and after putting his family’s affairs in order, he moved on. 

Khayyam joined one of the regular caravans making a three-month journey from Nishapur to the city of Samarkand, which is now in Uzbekistan.

In Samakarn, he showed a remarkable interest in mathematics, by writing treatises on arithmetic, algebra, and music theory under the patronage of chief justice Abu Tahir, who was also his father’s friend, and who noticed Khayyam’s extraordinarily talent with numbers.

It is presumed that due to his relationship with Tahir, ruler Shams al-Mulk distinctively regarded Omar with esteem.

According to reports the ruler used to show him the greatest honors, so much so that he would make Khayyam sit next to him on his divan.

Probably he was still at Shams al-Muk’s court around 1073 when peace was concluded with Sultan Malik Shah, who had earlier invaded the territory.

 It was then at the age of 26 that Khayyam entered Malik Shah’s service and when he was invited to go back to Iran to build an observatory at Isfahan and reform the Persian calendar.

He remained in Iran for the next 18 years, where he was paid an extraordinarily high salary and enjoyed a privileged lifestyle.

During this time the scientist measured the length of a year – tropical year length – with remarkable precision.

Recalibrating the calendar fixed the first day of the year at the exact moment of the passing of the Sun’s center across the equinox.

Shah introduced Khayyam’s calendar, the Jalali calendar,  on March 15, 1079, the scientist was 31 years old,

This calendar was used until the 20th century in Iran, he is also believed to have built models illustrating the theory of the Earth’s revolution on its axis.

The various biographical extracts refer to him as unequalled in scientific knowledge and achievement during his time.

His memory was prodigious, according to Omar’s contemporary biographer, al-Bayhaqi.

According to the author he was able to memorize a whole book after reading it several times, when he returned the book, the scientist was able to rewrite it from memory showing remarkable resemblance.

He was also a well-established mathematician, and his surviving mathematical works include A commentary in the difficulties concerning the postulates of Euclid’s Elements, on the division of a quadrant of a circle, and on proofs for problems concerning algebra.

During Sultan Malik Shah’s life both shared a great relationship however his luck changed when his successor, Sultan Sanjar entered to power.

Sultan Sanjar did not favour the scientist, it seems that Omar offended Sanjar while he was still a child, and he was never forgiven.

Upon Malik Shah’s death, Khayyam had fallen from favour at court and funding for raising the observatory eventually finished.

He went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and visited Baghdad. In his return he retired to Nishapur, where he appeared to have lived the life of a recluse.

 Among his other contributions, Khayyam is also best known for his work as a poet.

The Rubaiyat was his collection of hundreds of quatrains, and it was first translated from Farsi to English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald.

The poems celebrated the pleasures of life while illuminating the nuanced political and religious context in which they were created.

Some scholars believed that the scientist and author penned around 150 of the quatrains, other writers after him are thought to have contributed to the remainder.

He died in Nishapur at the age of 83, on December 4, 1131. From an account of Nizami Arudi, a Persian poet, Omar used to say that his “grave will be in a spot where the trees will shed their blossoms on me twice a year”.

When Arudi visited Nishapur about four years after Omar’s death, he searched for Omar’s grave, it was exactly at the spot where Omar had predicted.

According to the narration the blossoms completely covered the tombstone.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam [excerpt]
Edward Fitzgerald

12

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

14

Look to the blowing Rose about us--"Lo,
Laughing," she says, "into the world I blow,
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."

15

And those who husbanded the Golden Grain,
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain,
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turned
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

19

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropped in her Lap from some once lovely Head.

20
And this reviving Herb whose tender Green
Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean--
Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows
From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!

21

Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears
Today of past Regrets and future Fears:
Tomorrow!--Why, Tomorrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years.

22

For some we loved, the loveliest and the best
That from his Vintage rolling Time hath pressed,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest.

23

And we, that now make merry in the Room
They left, and Summer dresses in new bloom,
Ourselves must we beneath the Couch of Earth
Descend--ourselves to make a Couch--for whom?

24

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

71

The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

72

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling cooped we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help--for It
As impotently moves as you or I.

Beyond the earth, beyond the farthest skies I try to find Heaven and Hell. Then I hear a solemn voice that says: 'Heaven and hell are inside.'

OMAR KHAYYAM, THE RUBAIYAT