Page:Quatrains of Omar Khayyam (tr. Whinfield, 1883).djvu/33



uddín Abul Fath Omar bin Ibrahím Al Khayyám was a native of Nishapúr, one of the principal cities of Khorásan. According to the preface of the Calcutta MS., he died in 517, during the reign of Sultan Sanjar. The date of his birth is nowhere mentioned, but he was contemporary with Nizám ul Mulk, the celebrated Wazir of the Seljuk kings Alp Arslan and Malik Shah; and Nizám ul Mulk has left the following notice of him in his Wasáyá, or Testament :— "Imám Muaffik of Nishapur—(may Allah rest his soul!)—was one of the most learned men in Khorásan, and was held in the highest honour and reverence. He lived to over eighty-five years of age, and it was the common opinion that all youths who read the Koran, and learned the Traditions under him, would attain to wealth and fortune. For this cause my father sent me, in charge of the lawyer 'Abd us Samad, from Tús to Nishapúr, in order that I might apply myself to study and discipline