Omar Khayyam

About Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam, a polymath from the medieval Islamic Golden Age (1048–1131), is recognized by the Pantheon project as a highly influential historical figure, ranking #279 globally. While primarily known in the West as a poet for his *Rubaiyat*—a collection of quatrains exploring philosophical themes—his foundational contributions to mathematics, particularly in algebra and the calendar reform for the Seljuq Empire, secure his high historical importance. As a mathematician, his work laid groundwork for later advances, justifying his high placement among historical figures.

Despite this high historical standing, Khayyam's modern internet footprint is relatively modest. He garnered approximately 297K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. To put this in perspective against peers in his field, the mathematician Bertrand Russell accrued nearly four times that traffic (961K views) despite ranking lower in overall historical importance (#741). Khayyam's attention ratio is around 1x, suggesting his internet attention is roughly proportional to his historical rank, but he remains overshadowed by contemporary mathematicians whose influence is ranked lower. Furthermore, his interest appears to be slightly waning, as evidenced by a -12.3% year-over-year decrease in pageviews and a -12% drop in attention momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025.