Mausoleum of Omar Khayyám

File:WILLIAM SIMPSON, FRGS RI (1823-1899).jpg. Prior to the construction of the monument, it can be seen next to the mosque which it adjoins.]]

Omar Khayyam died on 4 December 1131 CE. The earliest account of Omar's final resting place is provided by his pupil Nizami Aruzi who visited his tomb in 1135-6. In Balkh, 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:{{cite book |author=Frye, Richard Nelson |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |volume=4 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1975 |isbn= |location=Cambridge, UK }}{{rp|661}}

{{blockquote|… [his prophecy] seemed 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 tomb itself survived various calamities; including several major earthquakes,{{cite book |author=Aminrazavi, Mehdi |title=The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam |publisher=Oneworld Publications |year=2007 |isbn= }}{{rp|68}} raids by some Turkic tribes, and the Mongol invasion.{{cite journal |title=The Tomb of Omar Khayyâm |author=Sarton, George |journal=Isis |volume=29 |number=1 |date=July 1938 |pages=15-17 |isbn= |publisher= |location= }} In the succeeding centuries, Omar's grave had become situated in an open wing of a shrine of a certain Islamic saint called Imamzadeh Muhammad Mahruk (d. eighth century), the brother of Reza. According to Percy Sykes, who visited the poet's tomb twice, the saint's mortuary shrine contained a formal Persian garden with cobbled paths. The shrine had a turquoise dome and was likely erected in the seventeenth century, or possibly earlier by Shah Abbas.{{cite journal |author=Sykes, M. |year=1914 |title=KHORASAN: THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF PERSIA |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts |volume=62 |number=3196 |pages=279-286 |publisher= |location= |issn= }}{{rp|283}} Some pilgrims to Omar's grave, such as the Iranologist, A. V. Williams Jackson who visited it in 1911, described his tomb as a simple case made of brick and cement with no inscription.File:Mausoleum of Omar-Khayyám.jpg

The reconstruction of the mausoleum was commissioned by the Iranian government under Reza Shah in 1934 during Ferdowsi's millenary. Omar's tomb was separated from the shrine, and a white marble monument, designed by Hooshang Seyhoun, was erected over it. The construction was completed in 1963. Seyhoun combined Khayyam's talents as a poet, mathematician, and astronomer in his design.{{Cite journal |last=Salari Sardari |first=Mohadeseh |date=2024-03-04 |title=Andre Godard and Maxime Siroux: Disentangling the Narrative of French Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Iran |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0021086224000100/type/journal_article |journal=Iranian Studies |language=en |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1017/irn.2024.10 |issn=0021-0862 |doi-access=free }} Nizami Aruzi mentioned Khayyam's desire for a grave adorned with blossoms each spring. Seyhoun fulfilled this wish by creating a pathway from the garden to Khayyam's tomb, allowing flowers to fall on it annually. He also paid homage to Khayyam's geometric work with a star-shaped feature on the tomb, opening to the sky above Nishapur and symbolizing the celestial expanse. To further honour Khayyam, Seyhoun decorated the structure with tiles inscribed with Khayyam poems in beautiful calligraphy, featuring Morteza Abdolrasul's abstract Shekaste Nastalik. This project aimed to modernize Iranian architecture while still embracing its heritage, marking a distinct Iranian modernism.

آرامگاه عمر خیام.jpg|

Neyshabour - Khayyam Tomb Tower 1.jpg

Ceiling of Tomb of Omar Khayyam.jpg

Khayam, neyshabur.jpg

آرامگاه عمر خیام 4.jpg

آرامگاه خیام نیشابور Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.jpg|Some verses of Khayyam have been written on his mausoleum with the taliq script

Construction of The Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam.png

خیام مزار.jpg

Previous Tomb of Omar Khayyam.jpg|Previous tomb of Khayyam, situated in the Khayyam square

Khayam sang2.jpg

نیشابور.jpg|A poem about the tomb, in Persian, written in Nasaliq script

Khayam.jpg22.jpg

Jalil Shahnaz in Omar Khayyam Mausoleum-Nishapur.jpg|Jalil Shahnaz in the mausoleum, in 1975

Mausoleum of Omar Khayyám.jpg|January 2011

{{stack|{{portal|Islam|Iran}}}}

• List of mausoleums in Iran
• Islam in Iran

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category-inline|Omar Khayyam Mausoleum}}

• {{cite web |url=http://551.ir/en/about-neyshabur/tourism/169-panoramic-images-of-khayyam%E2%80%99s-tomb |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930103905/http://551.ir/en/about-neyshabur/tourism/169-panoramic-images-of-khayyam%E2%80%99s-tomb |archive-date=2013-09-30 |title= Khayyam’s Tomb |format=panoramic images |work=Neyshabur Day |date= |access-date= }}

{{Mausoleums in Iran}}

{{Razavi Khorasan Province}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mausoleum of Omar Khayyam}}

Category:20th-century religious buildings and structures in Iran

Category:Buildings and structures in Nishapur

Category:Mausoleums, shrines and tombs on the Iran National Heritage List

Category:Hooshang Seyhoun buildings

Category:Omar Khayyam

Omar

Category:Religious buildings and structures completed in 1963

Category:Tourist attractions in Razavi Khorasan province