Omar Khayyam, or Omar the Tentmaker 1048--1122, is well known in the Persian world for his famous quatrains, collected in in his Rubayat and popularized in the west by Edward Fitzgerald in the nineteenth century, but very few among the lovers of his poetry are acquainted with his mathematical or astronomical work. On the other hand, the western mathematicians who know about Khayyam are not aware of his standing as one the most revered Persian poets. This talk will attempt to fill in this gap, at least with regard to the mathematical contributions of the poet.Besides from exploring the mathematical work of Omar Khayyam, and more generally the place of perso-arabic mathematicians in the history of mathematics, we will try to highlight the importance of those mathematics in our technological world and our everyday life.




