Omar Ibn Ibrahim Al-Khayyam was born at Nishapur, the provincial capital of Khurasan around 1044 A.D. Little is known about his early life, except for the fact that he was educated at Nishapur and lived there and in Samarqand for most of his life. Although he had the opportunity, he did not wish to be employed at the King's court and chose instead to lead a calm life devoted to the search for knowledge. The Saljuq Sultan, Malikshah Jalal al-Din, called him to the new observatory at Ray around 1074 and assigned him the task of determining a correct solar calendar. Khayyam introduced a calendar that was remarkably accurate, and was named as Al-Tarikh-al-Jalali. It had an error of one day in 3770 years and was thus even superior to the Georgian calendar (error of 1 day in 3330 years). Apart from being a scientist, Khayyam was also a well-known poet. It should be remembered that it is practically impossible to exactly translate any literary work into another language, particularly poetry, especially when it involves mystical and philosophical messages of deep complexity. Despite this, the popularity of the translation of Rubaiyat would indicate the wealth of his rich thought.