'Abel Fath Omar Bin Al-Khayyam was an eleventh-century Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physician and poet, most famous for his Rubaiyat, one of the classics of world literature. His work greatly influenced the development of mathematics, particularly analytical geometry, and was unsurpassed for many centuries. Although he is generally better known as a poet, his work as a philosopher, scientist and mathematician was a major contribution to the growth of human knowledge.