OMAGUA 



5843 



OMAR KHAYYAM 



I'll-' town is sai.l to huve 

 iriminl ii ii li'jioti-i IIOUM- fouu<|e<| 

 i ] M-OB bo*ig"d 



1 t , ami in h'.V.l tli'- 



force of Jam. . II ilariwji-'l the 

 n. MM. M.irU, l ,| ,, 



Omagua (Hat h.M.I) Smith 

 \im-ii' IN Imliiii tulx- nf (iuiirani 

 >t<H-k. on tin- II|I|MT lViy;ili I-IMT. 

 IVru. Under Andean intlm-mr 

 'hey formerly practised !M-I>| 

 flattening. Their fabled wealth led 

 to several 16th century expedi- 

 tions. For a century they nave 

 mterminulecl with other tribes. 

 In Brazil they are called Umauas, 

 perhaps their original name. 

 Omaha. City of Nebraska, 

 t lie co. seat of Douglas co. 

 The largest commercial and in- 

 dustrial city of the state, it stands 

 on the Missouri river, about ^M 



Olympus. Highest peaks of the mountain famous in the 



history of ancient Greece, with their modern names. A. 



Throne of Zeus. B. Peak Venizelos. C. Cock's Comb. 



D. Virgin. E. Tarpeian Rock. F. Black Peak 



m. N.VV. of St. Louis, and is served 

 by the Chicago, Milwaukee and 

 St. Paul and other rlys., of four of 

 which it is the terminus. The 

 city is built on a plateau, the com- 

 mercial portion lyuig below the 

 residential quarter, close to the 

 river, which is here spanned by 

 three bridges communicating with 

 Council Bluffs. Among notable 

 buildings are the city hall, the 

 U.S. government building, two 

 cathedrals, a public library, a con- 

 vention hall and auditorium, and 

 several imposing business blocks. 

 It is the seat of Omaha and Creigh- 

 ton universities, and has two medi- 

 cal colleges. 



Omaha has upwards of 1,000 

 acres of parks and the military 

 headquarters of the Department 

 of the Missouri, which cover 80 

 acres of ground and include large 

 barracks. The Union Pacific Rly. 

 has extensive workshops, and here, 

 also, is one of the best equipped 

 plants in the world for the smelt- 

 ing of gold, silver, copper, lead, and 

 zinc. Other industries are meat 

 packing and the manufacture of 

 motor- vehicles, flour, boots and 

 shoes, clothing, white lead, ma- 

 chinery, and boilers. Settled in 



>m:iha wan chartered M a 

 city in ls"7. iitxl from iU settle- 

 inriit doMii to lMi>7 wan the tat 

 <;i|.it.il. South Omtihii. until then 

 mi inoV|>eiiilent <it\, wa* incor- 

 porated with Omaha in 1915. Pop. 

 101,000 



Omaha. Tribe of American 

 Indi.iim. Th.'v lived in what i* 

 now the state of Nebraska, and 

 carried on a long and bitter war 

 with th<- Sioux. Thi- remnants of 

 the tribe live on a reservat 

 Nebraska. The name means people 

 of the upper stream. 



Oman. State of Arabia. It 

 stretches for about 1,000 m. along 

 the coast of S.E. Arabia, being 

 bounded on the land side by the 

 desert. Its area is about 82,000 sq. 

 m., and the pop. about 500,000, 

 hietly Anil)-, but some negroes. 

 Much of the sur- 

 face is mountain- 

 ous, but in other 

 parts the soil is 

 fertile. The chief 

 products are dates 

 and other kinds of 

 fruit. Muscat is 

 the capital. About 

 1741 an Arab 

 chief, having 

 seized Muscat, 

 called himself 

 imam or ruler of 

 Oman, and his 

 descendants have 

 since kept their 

 authority. The 

 area under their 

 rule has, however, varied consider- 

 ably, having been especially exten- 

 sive about 1800, when it included 

 part of E. Africa. The government 

 of India, which has a resident at 

 Muscat, has found it necessary from 

 time to time to interfere in the 

 affairs of Oman, the integrity of 

 which is guaranteed by Great 

 Britain and France. 



Oman, GULF or. N.W. exten- 

 sion of the Arabian Sea. It lies 

 between Oman, S.E. Arabia, and 

 Makran, Persia. It leads to the 

 N.W. through the Strait of Ormuz 

 to the Persian Gulf, and is over 

 200 m. wide at its entrance. 



Oman, SIR CHARLES WILLIAM 

 CHADWICK (K I860). British his- 

 torian. Born in India, Jan. 12, 1860, 

 and educated at Winchester and 

 New College, Oxford, he became a 

 fellow of All Souls, devoting himself 

 to historical research, especially 

 military history. In 1891 appeared 

 his War\\ i< -l. the King-maker, and 

 in 1898 his History of the Art of War 

 in the Middle Ages. His History of 

 the Peninsular War, in five volumes 

 (1902-14), cannot rival Napier in 

 style and life, but it corrects some 

 of the errors made by the oir!i<>r 

 writer. Oman also wrote Welling- 



Sir C. W. Oman. 

 British historian 



ton's A i 

 1912. and popu 

 lar Hi* tori** of 



land, and I 

 rope. In 



he M rn j 

 ChHielo pro 



fessor of moil 

 em history at 

 Oxford and 

 fellow of the 

 British Aca- 

 demy. He was elected M.P. for 

 Oxford University in 1919, and 

 km/hied in 1920. 



Omar (d. 644). Mahomedan 

 raliph. One of those who was 

 attracted to Mahomet, he became 

 one of the leaders of the new faith. 

 In 634 he succeeded Abu Bekr as 

 caliph, and held that position for 

 ten years, being murdered by a 

 slave in 644. He carried on a war- 

 like policy, bringing Palestine, 

 Syria, and Egypt under his rule 

 and crushing the Persians. He 

 also ordered the internal affairs 

 of the caliphate and was the first 

 to bear the title commander of the 

 faithful. The Mosque of Omar at 

 Jerusalem, which he is said to have 

 built to hold the rock from which 

 Mahomet ascended to heaven, per- 

 petuates his name. See Jerusalem. 



Omar Khayyam, HAKIM (c 

 1071-1123). Persian poet, astrono- 

 mer, and mathematician. Bora at 

 Nishapur, Khorassan, he is said 

 to have studied under the imam 

 Mowaffak with Hassan-al-Sabbah, 

 later founder of the secret sect of 

 Assassins (q. v.), and Nizam-al-Mulk, 

 who became vizier of Malik Shah. 

 Omar helped to revise the Persiati 

 calendar, compiled astronomical 

 tables, and wrote on mathematics. 

 In Europe, he was chiefly known 

 as author of a work on algebra 

 until attention was drawn to his 

 value as a poet by the rendering 

 into English, by Edward Fitz- 

 Gerald (q.v.), of part of his 

 Ru baiyat (q.v.) or quatrains. These 

 have been variously interpreted as 

 praise of love and wine and of 

 making the best of the present 

 world, because it is the human all- 

 in-all, and as a Sutiite allegory in 

 which wine is an emblem of God. 

 As rendered by FitzGerald, the 

 Ru baiyat is frankly an expression 

 of hedonism touched with a certain 

 melancholy that attunes with west- 

 ern as well as eastern pessimism. 



Bibliography. Editions of the 

 Rubaiyat by FitzUerald, 1859, 

 1868, 1872, 1879, and (in collected 

 works), 1889, frequently reprinted ; 

 J. B. Nicolas, 1867; Sadik Ali. 

 1878; E. H. Whinfield, 1882. 

 3rd ed. 1901 ; J. H. M'Carthy, 1889; 

 I-:. Heron-Alk>n. 1898; bibliography 

 of Rubaivftt. N, H. Dole, 1896 : 

 Life, J. R. M. Shirazi. 1905. 



