In his quatrains, Khayyam explores fundamental human questions regarding existence, death, God, destiny, life, and the secret of immortality in language that is simple yet profound, and sometimes tinged with irony.
During his lifetime, Khayyam was primarily known as a mathematician and astronomer: alongside a group of scholars, he reformed the "Jalali Calendar" (or Malikshahi Calendar) at the behest of Sultan Malik Shah Seljuk, which is considered one of the most accurate solar calendars in history. Furthermore, in mathematics, he wrote the Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra and was the first to solve cubic equations using conic sections—a feat not accomplished by any mathematician before him (neither in Greece nor in the Islamic world). However, after his death, his Rubaiyat met with astonishing acclaim in Iran and worldwide, making him one of the most famous Persian-speaking poets globally.
Khayyam’s Rubaiyat is philosophically and literarily unique. What has made his quatrains universal is his "relentless honesty" in confronting the eternal questions of humanity; he offers no definitive answers, but he poses the questions so powerfully and explicitly that no reader can remain indifferent.
Khayyam's influence on world literature and the ECO region is astonishing and unparalleled. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, he was the most famous Persian poet in the West, a fame owed to the English poet and translator Edward FitzGerald. In 1859, FitzGerald translated Khayyam’s quatrains into English (titled Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám). The translation was so successful and influential that it brought Khayyam legendary fame in the West. FitzGerald was not a literal translator but a "re-creator," transferring the quatrains to Victorian English with great poetic freedom.
FitzGerald’s translation was subsequently rendered into over 70 world languages (including French, German, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, and Arabic), making Khayyam one of the most translated poets in the world. In the ECO region, Khayyam has deeply influenced Persian-language literature (Afghanistan, Tajikistan); his Rubaiyat is taught in schools in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and many contemporary poets (such as Layeq Shirali in Tajikistan and Khalilullah Khalili in Afghanistan) have been influenced by him.
In Pakistan, his Rubaiyat have been translated into Urdu and are read with enthusiasm in the literary circles of Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi. In Turkey, Khayyam has been known since the 19th century; his quatrains were translated into Ottoman and then modern Turkish, and poets such as Yahya Kemal Beyatli and Nâzım Hikmet were influenced by him. In Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, his works have been translated into local languages, and Khayyam is recognized as a symbol of "Eastern wisdom."