The Centre Cannot Hold » 1048 http://thecentrecannothold.net Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 1048 – Omar Khayyám is born http://thecentrecannothold.net/blog/1048-omar-khayyam-is-born/ http://thecentrecannothold.net/blog/1048-omar-khayyam-is-born/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 07:23:01 +0000 Loki http://thecentrecannothold.net/?p=1816 One of the most well-known Middle Eastern poets in the West, largely due to an apparently neverending series of translations of his Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyám was also a mathematician, an astronomer, and as his poetry tends to indicate, a philosopher. He’s one of the few people in history that could have dealt with Leonardo da [...]]]> One of the most well-known Middle Eastern poets in the West, largely due to an apparently neverending series of translations of his Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyám was also a mathematician, an astronomer, and as his poetry tends to indicate, a philosopher. He’s one of the few people in history that could have dealt with Leonardo da Vinci as an equal, a true polymath whose work remains influential even today. Notably, he was one of the reformers who modified the Persian Calendar in 1079 – the new calendar, known as the Jalali calendar, is still in use (with some minor corrections) in Iran and Afghanistan.

Of course, he was also damned cool – legend has it that he was a boyhood friend of Hassan i Sabbah (and if you don’t know who he was, you’re in for a surprise), while modern historical research has uncovered evidence suggesting that he devised a heliocentric model of our Solar System centuries before Copernicus. Frankly, he’s a candidate for interesting historical fictions just waiting to happen.

Referenced in:
Asia – Awake
Bing Crosby – The Road to Morocco
Van Morrison – Rave On, John Donne
Edgar Broughton Band – Roccococooler

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