The Mausoleum of

Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...

(

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: آرامگاه عمر خیام ) is a

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

of white marble erected over

's headstone located on the south-east of the city of

Nishapur Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wr ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. This mausoleum is a symbol of modern Persian architecture and is part of the national heritage of

. This monument was built during the reign of the

Pahlavi dynasty The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

and was designed by

Hooshang Seyhoun Houshang Seyhoun, ( fa, هوشنگ سیحون) (August 22, 1920 – May 26, 2014) was an Iranian architect, sculptor, painter, scholar and professor. He studied fine arts at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and earned a de ...

. The reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam in Nishapur was commissioned by

Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...

. Omar's previous tomb was separated from his tomb, and a white marble monument (Current Mausoleum), designed by the Iranian architect

, was erected over it. This mausoleum became one of the main symbols of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and one of the known works of the modern Persian architecture. The influence of the architectural design of this mausoleum is visible on the coat of arms of the

University of Neyshabur The University of Neyshabur (or NishapurThis university is named after the historic and the current city of Nishapur which is also Romanized as ''Neyshabur''. Both spellings are correct, however, only one of the spellings is used legally.) () is a ...

, Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) and other public, civil and private organizations of the city. The construction of the new mausoleum was completed in the year 1963.

History

Omar Khayyam died on 4 December 1131. The earliest account of Omar's final resting place is provided by his pupil

Nizami Aruzi Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Alī, known as Nizamī-i Arūzī-i Samarqandī ( fa, نظامی عروضی) and also Arudi ("The Prosodist"), was a Persian poet and prose writer who flourished between 1110 and 1161. He is particularly famous for his ''Chahar Ma ...

who visited his tomb in 1135-6. In

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

, in 1112-13, Nizami heard Omar make a prophecy about his place of burial, that his grave "would be where flowers in the springtime would shed their petals over his dust". He describes visiting his grave in what was then the ''cemetery of Hayrah'':

is prophecyseemed to me impossible, though I knew that one such as he would not speak idle words. When I arrived at Nishapur in the year A.H. 530, it being then four years since that great man had veiled his countenance in the dust, and this nether world had been bereaved of him. Since he was my master, on the eve of a Friday, with a companion, I went to visit his grave in the Hayrah Cemetery, I turned left and saw a grave situated at the foot of a garden-wall, over which pear-trees and peach-trees thrust their heads, and on his grave had fallen so many flower-leaves that his dust was hidden beneath the flowers. This reminded me of the conversation I had heard from him in the city of Balkh, I wept, for in the four corners of the world I had seen no one like him.The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4. Cambridge University Press (1975): Richard Nelson Frye

The tomb itself survived various calamities; including several major earthquakes (Nishapur being on a seismic fault-line),Mehdi Aminrazavi, ''The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam'',

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market.

(2007) raids by some Turkic tribes, and the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

.''The Tomb of Omar Khayyâm'', George Sarton, Isis, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jul., 1938), 15. In the succeeding centuries, Omar's grave had become situated in an open wing of a shrine of a certain Islamic saint called ''

Imamzadeh An imamzadeh () is a Persian language, Persian term with two related meanings: a type of holy person in Shia Islam, and the shrine-tomb of such a person. Firstly, it means an immediate descendant of a Shia, Shi'i Imamah (Shia doctrine), Imam. T ...

Muhammad Mahruk'' (d. eighth century), the brother of

Reza Reza is a Persian name, originating from the Arabic word , ''Riḍā'', which literally means "the fact of being pleased or contented; contentment, approval". In religious context, this name is interpreted as ''satisfaction'' or "''perfect content ...

. According to

Percy Sykes Brigadier-General Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, (28 February 1867 – 11 June 1945) was a British soldier, diplomat, and scholar with a considerable literary output. He wrote historical, geographical, and biographical works, as well as describing ...

, who visited the poet's tomb twice, the saint's mortuary shrine contained a formal Persian garden with cobbled paths.Sykes, M. (1914). KHORASAN: THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF PERSIA. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 62(3196), 279-286. The shrine had a turquoise dome and was likely erected in the seventeenth century, or possibly earlier by Shah Abbas.Sykes, M. (1914). KHORASAN: THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF PERSIA. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 62(3196), 279-286. Some pilgrims to Omar's grave, such as the Iranologist,

A. V. Williams Jackson Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson, L.H.D., Ph.D., LL.D. (February 9, 1862 – August 8, 1937) was an American specialist on Indo-European languages. Biography He was born in New York City on February 9, 1862. He graduated from Columbia Un ...

who visited it in 1911, described his tomb as a simple case made of brick and cement with no inscription. Mausoleum of Omar-Khayyám

Reconstruction

The reconstruction of the mausoleum was commissioned by the Iranian government (

) in 1934 during

Ferdowsi Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi ( fa, ; 940 – 1019/1025 CE), also Firdawsi or Ferdowsi (), was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a sin ...

's millenary. Omar's tomb was separated from the

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

, and a white marble monument, designed by the architect

, was erected over it. The construction was completed in 1963.

Gallery

File:آرامگاه عمر خیام.jpg File:Neyshabour - Khayyam Tomb Tower 1.jpg File:Ceiling of Tomb of Omar Khayyam.jpg File:Khayam, neyshabur.jpg File:آرامگاه عمر خیام 4.jpg File:آرامگاه خیام نیشابور Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.jpg, Some verses of

Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...

have been written on his mausoleum with the

taliq script The taʿlīq () script is a style in Islamic calligraphy designed specifically to satisfy the needs of the Persian language. It emerged in the mid-13th century from gradual changes in the '' naskh'' style, and also incorporated influences from '' ...

. File:Construction of The Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.png File:خیام مزار.jpg File:Previous Tomb of Omar Khayyam.jpg, Previous tomb of Khayyam, situated in the Khayyam square of

File:Khayam sang2.jpg File:نیشابور.jpg, A poem in

written in Nasaliq script. This poem is written for/about the tomb of

. File:Khayam.jpg22.jpg File:Jalil Shahnaz in Omar Khayyam Mausoleum-Nishapur.jpg,

Jalil Shahnaz Jalil Shahnaz (22 May 1921 – 17 June 2013; Persian: جلیل شهناز) was a Persian classical music musician and a virtuoso of the Persian musical instrument, tar. Biography Jalil Shahnaz was born in 1921 in Isfahan, Persia (Iran). Shahna ...

in Omar Khayyam Mausoleum,

Neyshabur Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wr ...

(1975). File:Mausoleum of Omar Khayyám.jpg, January 2011

References

External links

Arch NetPanoramic Images of Khayyam’s Tomb
� Neyshabur Day {{DEFAULTSORT:Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam Buildings and structures in Nishapur Omar Khayyam Architecture in Iran Buildings and structures in Razavi Khorasan Province Tourist attractions in Razavi Khorasan Province

Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

Hooshang Seyhoun buildings