Khaijam and Somalia

Public lectures have once again started at the Adult Education Centre of the City of Helsinki. As always there is a wide selection of lectures to satisfy curious minds.

The first lecture where yours truly went discussed Omar Khaijam, a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. The lecture was given by Juha Olavinen who apparently has lectured at the AEC many times. He knew what he was talking about and this ensured that it was easy to listen to him.

The lecture gave a good overview of the life and achievements of Omar Khaijam (1048-1131). During his long life Khaijam achieved many things in different fields. He is best remembered as a poet. His poems were brought to public knowledge in the West by Edward Fitzgerald. In 1850 Fitzgerald published a collection of Khaijam’s works. Though some of the poems are erotic love poems, which explain their popularity, there are also philosophical poems. Khaijam’s relaxed views on wine drinking and views on religion have made him unpopular among those who take the teachings of Quran seriously.

In the field of science Khaijam also achieved a lot. One of his achievements was the invention of ‘x’ in mathematics to describe an unknown factor. Khaijam spent a lot time working in mathematics and he had an important role in the development of the field. Another achievement was the creation of an almanac based on his careful astronomical observations. Apparently it is very accurate and can be used even today.

The other lecture’s topic was Somalia. This was the first lecture in a series of lectures about Somalia. The AEC made a good choice in their selection of the speaker. It would have been terrible had they chose some 22 year old second year university student who had backpacked for three months in Africa and now considers him/herself an expert on Africa. In fact AEC had asked Finland-Somalia society to give the lectures and the first lecture was given by the chairman Yusuf M. Mubarak.

The first lecture was a general overview of Somalia’s history and society. It covered the time before Somalia’s independence and the events after 1960 when Somalia became independent. A recurring theme was the fact that most of its history Somalia has suffered from internal squabbles between different segments of the society. Interesting detail regarding society in general is the fact that the old poetry tradition has suffered as the young have scattered around the world and the old cannot pass on the ancient tradition.

For a more detailed account of Somali history the chairman recommended a book called ‘The scramble in the Horn of Africa’ by Mohamed Osman Omar.