Omar Khayyám (1048 AD —1131 AD, Neyshabur, Iran), was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. He wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, and music.
Outside Iran and Persian speaking countries, Khayyám has had an impact on literature and societies through the translation of his works and popularization by other scholars. The greatest such impact was in English-speaking countries; the English scholar Thomas Hyde (1636–1703) was the first non-Persian to study him. The most influential of all was Edward FitzGerald (1809–83), who made Khayyám the most famous poet of the East in the West through his celebrated translation and adaptations of Khayyám's rather small number of quatrains (rubaiyaas) in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
As a mathematician, he is recognized as the author of the most important treatise on algebra before modern times as reflected in his Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra, giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle.

As an astronomer, Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days which is outstandingly accurate.
When Khayyam came under attack from the orthodox Muslims who felt that Khayyam's questioning mind did not conform to the faith, he wrote in his poem the Rubaiyat :
Indeed, the Idols I have loved so long,
Have done my Credit in Men's Eye much Wrong
Have drowned my Honour in a shallow cup,
And sold my reputation for a Song.