Omar Khayyam Nishapuri (May 18, 1048 - December 4, 1131) - a Persian philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet.

During the life of Khayyam he was known only as an outstanding scientist. Throughout his life, he wrote poetic aphorisms (Rubai), which expressed his inner thoughts about life, about man, about his knowledge. Over the years, the amount attributed to Khayyam quatrains grew exponentially and to the XX century has exceeded 5000. Obviously, their writings attributed to Khayyam all those who feared prosecution for blasphemy and free-thinking. Similarly, to determine which of them really belong Khayyam (if he even wrote poems), is almost impossible. Some researchers consider it possible authorship Khayyam's Rubaiyat against 300-500.

For a long time, Omar Khayyam was forgotten. Luckily notebook with his poems came during the Victorian era in the hands of the English poet Edward Fitzgerald, who translated many rubai first in Latin and then to English. At the beginning of the XX century Rubaie in a very free and original arrangement Fitzgerald became perhaps the most popular product of Victorian poetry. World famous Omar Khayyam as a herald of hedonism denies posthumous retribution, awakened interest in his scientific achievements which were rediscovered and pereosoznany.