Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician and poet.  His work on algebra and geometry gave him an elevated position in his own time.  Khayyam made major contributions to mathematics, particularly in algebra.  Algebra would seem to rank first among the fields to which he contributed.  He made an attempt to classify most algebraic equations, including third degree equations and offered solutions for a number of them.  This includes geometric solutions of cubic equations and partial geometric solutions of most other equations.  His book Maqalat fi al-Jabr wa al-Muqabila is a masterpiece on algebra and has a great importance in the development of algebra.  Omar Khayyam refers to his algebra book to another work on what we know as Pascal's triangle.  He extended Euclid's work on giving a new definition of ratios and included the multiplication of ratios.  He contributed to the theory of parallel lines. One of the accomplishments of Omar Khayyam was to give geometrical construction for the roots of a cubic as the intersections of two conics.  Menaechmus and others to solve certain special cubics had used this approach earlier, but Khayyam generalized it to cover all cubics.  It's likely that when Khayyam said the cubic cannot be "solved algebraically" he was using his definition of algebra" as a geometric fact that is proved.  Omar Khayyam developed a geometrical approach to solving equations, which involves a creative selection of proper conics.  He solved cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle.  Khayyam was the first to develop the binomial theorem and determine binomial coefficients. Khayyam is also a well-known poet.  Omar Khayyam is believed to have composed somewhere between 200 and 600 Rubaiyat (quatrains).  Some are known to be authentic and attributed to him, while others seem to be combinations or corruption of his poetry.  The Rubaiyat is not a single poem, but is a collection of verses written or attributed to Omar Khayyam.  The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is among the few masterpieces that have been translated into most languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, and Urdu.  Edward J. Fitzgerald undertook the most famous translation of the Rubaiyat from Farsi into English in 1859.  The true Rubaiyat has poems covering mankind, pleasure of life, life and destiny, and realization of sin and moralization. In conclusion, Omar Khayyam was a very successful mathematician and poet.  The clever math solutions that he came up with we use them today.  His poetry was unique because it was translated into many different languages.  In the History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell remarks that Omar Khayyam was the only man known to him who was both a poet and a mathematician.  His fame as a mathematician has been primarily eclipsed by his popularity as a poet.