Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/831

Rh O L Y C O M A 771 varied school of lyric poetry, as well as of music, in the Greek world. On the musician see, besides the general works on Greek litera ture, Ritschl, &quot;Olympos der Aulet,&quot; in Opusc., i. ; Flach, Gesch. d. gricch. Lyrik, 1883 ; Westphal, Metrik, &c. OLYNTHUS was an important city of Chalcidice (see vol. xv. p. 137), situated in a fertile plain at the head of the Toronaic gulf between the peninsulas of Sithonia and Pallene, at some little distance from the sea, and about 60 stadia from Potidsea. The district belonged origin ally to a Thracian people, the Bottiaei ; and it is said that it was given over to the Greek colonists of Chal cidice at the Persian invasion. It fell under Athenian influence during the 5th century, but regained its free dom during the invasion of Brasidas (424 B.C.). It became the head of a great confederacy, and its power excited the jealousy of Sparta. A war broke out 383-379, and Olyn- thus was compelled to become a member of the Spartan confederacy. No long time afterwards the Athenians made themselves masters of several towns which had pre viously been under the influence of Olynthus, and then a new and more dangerous enemy appeared on the northern frontier. Philip of Macedon found the city his most powerful rival, and directed all his strength against it. The Athenians made an alliance with Olynthus, but did not give any active aid, though Demosthenes tried hard to induce them to oppose Philip before he grew too strong. The famous series of Olynthiac orations was delivered by him at this crisis. After a long siege the city was cap tured by treachery in 347 B.C. ; it was razed to the ground, and the people sold as slaves. OMAHA, the largest city in Nebraska, U.S., is situ ated on the west bank of the Missouri, 600 miles from its confluence with the Mississippi, in 41 15 43&quot; N. lat. and 95 55 47&quot; W. long, (time l h 16 m after that of Wash ington). The lower part, situated mainly on a terrace, is principally devoted to business ; the upper part, on the bluffs, to the finer residences, parks, and churches. It was founded in 1854, and in 1855 it became the capital of Nebraska Territory, when its inhabitants numbered little over 100 ; Lincoln, however, is the capital of the State. The population (1883 in 1860, 16,083 in 1870) was 30,518 in 1880, and in 1883 had risen to 49,710, its present growth surpassing that of any former period. Omaha con tains the most extensive smelting and refining works in the Union. The number of men employed is 300, and the production of metals in 1882 was lead, 43,711,921 B); gold, 16,272 oz. fine; silver, 4,853,851 oz. fine; sulphate of copper, 152,041 K&amp;gt;. Other manufactures amount to over $7,000,000 annually. The educational institutions include Creighton College, Brownell Hall for young ladies, a medical college, and a business college. The high school building, erected at a cost of $250,000, is one of the finest in the country. There are besides ten free schoolhouses, containing seventy-four schoolrooms. Among the public buildings are the post-office and court-house, an opera- house seating 1700 people, many hotels, and numerous churches. The streets are wide and cross at right angles, and the business portions are in process of being paved. The city is lighted by gas and the electric light. Street railways penetrate in all directions. Omaha is also an important railroad centre. OMAN, or OMAN. See ARABIA. OMAR. See MOHAMMEDANISM, vol. xvi. pp. 563, 574. OMAR KHAYYAM. The great Persian mathemati cian, astronomer, freethinker, and epigrammatist, Ghiyath- uddin Abulfath Omar bin Ibrahim al-Khayyami, who de rived the epithet Khayyam (the tentmaker) most likely from his father s trade, was born in or close by Nishapur, and is stated to have died there in 517 A.H. (1123 A.D.). This date is accepted by most Eastern and Western writers, but the renowned vizier of the Seljuk sultans Alp Arslan and Malikshah, Nizam-ulmulk of Tus, whose birth is fixed in 408 A.H. (1017 A.D.), expressly states in one of his writings that Omar was of the same age as himself, and attended with him the lectures of the imam Muwaffak in the college of Nishapur. However that may be, there cannot be the slightest doubt that at an early age Omar entered into a close friendship both with NizAm-ulmulk and his school fellow Hasan ibn Sabbah, who founded afterwards the terrible sect of the Isma ilis or Assassins. The three friends pledged themselves by a solemn promise that he who should first gain an influential position in the world would lend a helping hand to the other two and promote their success in life. When Nizam-ulmulk was raised to the rank of vizier by Alp Arslan (1063-1073 A.D.) he re membered this covenant and bestowed upon Hasan ibn Sabbah the dignity of a chamberlain, whilst offering a similar court office to Omar Khayyam. But the latter contented himself with an annual stipend which would enable him to devote all his time to his favourite studies of mathematics and astronomy, and he soon proved his gratitude for the liberality of his patron and friend by the publication of his standard work on algebra, written in Arabic. This and other treatises of a similar character for instance, on the extraction of cube roots and on the explanation of difficult definitions in Euclid raised him at once to the foremost rank among the mathematicians of that age, and induced Sultan Malikshah to summon him in 467 A.H. (1074 A.D.) to institute astronomical observa tions on a larger scale, and to aid him in his great enterprise of a thorough reform of the calendar. A twofold fruit resulted from Omar s elaborate research in the sultan s observatory, a revised edition of the Zlj or astronomical tables, and the introduction of the Ta rikh-i-Malikshahl or Jalall, that is, the so-called Jalalian or Seljuk era, which commences in 471 A.H. (1079 A.D., 15th March). Great, however, as Omar s scientific fame has always been throughout the East, it is nearly eclipsed by his still greater poetical renown, which he owes to his rubais or quatrains, a collection of about 500 epigrams, unequalled by any of his predecessors or followers. The peculiar form of the ruba l -viz., four lines, the first, second, and fourth of which have the same rhyme, while the third usually (but not al ways) remains rhymeless was first successfully introduced into Persian literature as the exclusive vehicle for subtle thoughts on the various topics of Sufic mysticism by the sheikh Abu Sa ld bin Abulkhair, 1 but Omar differs in its treatment considerably from Abu Sa id. Although some of his quatrains are purely mystic and pantheistic, most of them bear quite another stamp ; they are the breviary of a radical freethinker, who protests in the most forcible manner both against the narrowness, bigotry, and un compromising austerity of the orthodox ulema and the eccentricity, hypocrisy, and wild ravings of advanced Sufis, whom he successfully combats with their own weapons, using the whole mystic terminology simply to ridicule mysticism itself. There is in this respect a great resem blance between him and Hafiz, but Omar is decidedly superior, not so much on account of his priority as for his more concise, more simple, and yet infinitely more energetic style. He has often been called the Voltaire of the East, and cried down as materialist and atheist. As far as purity of diction, fine wit, crushing satire against a debased and ignorant clergy, and a general sympathy with suffering humanity are concerned, Omar certainly reminds us of the great Frenchman ; but there the com parison ceases. Voltaire never wrote anything equal to 1 Died Jan. 1049. Comp. Ethe s edition of his ruba is in Sitzungs- berichte der bayr. Akademie, 1875, pp. 145 sq., and 1878, pp. 38 sq.