TEHRAN -- A two-day ceremony in commemoration of the 12th century Iranian poet, mathematician, and astronomer Hakim Omar Khayyam was held in Doha, Qatar from March 15 to 16.

Several professors, researchers, and scholars from Iran, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar attended the ceremony.

The personality and life of Khayyam, the status of Khayyam among Iranians and Arabs, the role of Khayyam in the modification of the Jalali calendar (the official calendar used in Iran, Afghanistan, Kurdish Mesopotamia, and the surrounding Central Asian republics), the bibliography of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and several other issues were discussed at the event.

Iranian scholar Javad Rohaninejad delivered the first lecture, in which he discussed the social situation of Khayyam’s time and described the events and scientific developments in those years.

The head of the Arabic Department of Qatar University said that Arab literary figures have great respect for the poetry of Khayyam, and many of his poems have been translated into Arabic.

“Ahmed Rami is one of the renowned Arab poets who have long tried to discover the character of Khayyam in his poems by translating them into Arabic,” he said.

Iranian scholar Amir Akrami delivered a lecture on Khayyam’s career as a mathematician, noting that his correction of the Iranian calendar was one of his most important achievements.

On the second day, a program entitled “Khayyam in Thought and Language” was held in which five lectures were delivered by scholars from Qatar and Iran.

The event was organized by the Iranian cultural attaché in Qatar in collaboration with Iranian and foreign Khayyam experts and some Qatar University professors.

Omar Khayyam wrote many four-line epigrammatic verses, which were later brought together in a collection called the Rubaiyat.

In the West, he is mostly known for his poetry. However, in the East, he is recognized as having been equally talented in the fields of mathematics and astronomy.