Great poets, Rumi and Omar Khayyam!

Great poets, Rumi and Omar Khayyam!

A write-up by Padmapriya 

Rumi was born to native Persian-speaking parents in 1207. He was born either in Wakhsh village on the Vakhsh River in present-day Tajikistan or in the city of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan.

Greater Balkh was at that time a major centre of Persian culture  and Sufism had developed there for several centuries. The most important influences upon Rumi, besides his father, were the Persian poets Attar and Sanai. Rumi expresses his appreciation: "Attar was the spirit, Sanai his eyes twain, And in time thereafter, Came we in their train" and mentions in another poem: "Attar has traversed the seven cities of Love, We are still at the turn of one street". His father was also connected to the spiritual lineage of Najm al-Din Kubra. Rumi lived most of his life under the Persianate Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, where he produced his works and died in 1273 AD. He had travelled to Nishapur in present day Iran and was buried in Konya.

  Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. He was born in Nishapur, in northeastern Iran, and spent most of his life near the court of the Karakhanid and Seljuq rulers in the period which witnessed the First Crusade. Khayyam was born in 1048 in Nishapur, a leading metropolis in Khorasan during medieval times that reached its zenith of prosperity in the eleventh century under the Seljuq dynasty. Nishapur was also a major center of the Zoroastrian religion, and it is likely that Khayyam's father was a Zoroastrian who had converted to Islam. His full name, as it appears in the Arabic sources, was Abu’l Fath Omar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam. In medieval Persian texts he is usually simply called Omar Khayyam.

Source: Wikipedia

The similarities 

1. Both wrote in the Persian language.

2. They were both associated with Nishapur region in Persia.

4.They were both associated with the times of the Seljuq rulers of Persia.

Dissimilarities

1. Omar Khayyam wrote more on epicurean themes whereas Rumi wrote mostly on mystical themes.

2. Omar Khayyam started out as a mathematician and astronomer whereas Rumi started out as Teacher and Jurist.