Khaiyyam was born as Mohammed Zahoor Hashmi in Rahon village in Jalandhar. He was inclined to the music when he was very young.He often escaped to the city for watching movies. Khayyam soon ran away to his uncle’s house in Delhi, in the hope of becoming an actor. Khaiyyam’s uncle enrolled him in a school. When he saw the boy’s passion for films, he allowed him to learn music, since in those days it was actually a step forward in realizing his ambition.

He studied music under the guidence of Pandit Amarnath and Pandit Husnlal Bhagaram. After that he went to Lahore looking for roles in films. But fate had something else in store for him. One day Khaiyyam had gone to meet G.A. Chisti one of the foremost music directors when young Khaiyyam who was listening to the composition by Chisti and sung to him its first part . Impressed Chisti gave him an offer of joining him as an assistant.Khayyam assited Chisti for six months and came to Ludiana in 1943. He was only 18 then.

Khaiyyam came to Bombay in 1946, and rejoined Chisti.After some time he broke with Chisti and joined his one-time guru Pandit Husnlal Bhagaram who immediately offered him an assignment a duet with Zohrabai Ambalewali in the film Romeo And Juliet. After this he sang with the top singers like Geeta Dutt and Meena Kapoor.

His first from the same film was sung by the legend Talat Mahmood.In the post Footpath period, Khaiyyam spent most of his time composing music for private Ghazal albums. Most of the C.H.Atma Ghazals were put to music by the genius. The film Lala Rookh flopped but it served Khaiyyam’s purpose since the film had wonderful music. The Asha-Talat duet ‘Pyaas kuch aur bhi bhadka di jhalak dikhlaa Ke,’ is an evergreen number.

His connection with Raj Kapoor in the film Phir Subah Hogi tresulted in seven songs all of them brilliantly composed. Songs like ‘Chino arab hamara’ and ‘Wo subah kabhi to aayegi' classics will remain Khaiyyam’s best works.In 1962 he composed for Shola Aur Shabnam that containing ‘Jeet hi lenge baazi hum tum’ and ‘Aur kuch der thahar’ (Aakhri Khat ) and ‘Pichli yaad bhula do’ in (Mehndi-old).

His last movie was Sankalp in the year 1968.Due to shortage of hindi asisgnments he kept himself occupied by composing for private Ghazal albums. There is an exquisite collection of Ghazals penned by Sudarshan and set to music by Khaiyyam. The collection was called Faakir.

Khaiyyam was assigned Yash Chopra's Kabhi Kabhi in 1975 that was very successful and Khaiyyam composed for other Yash Chopra films like Trishul, Noorie and Nakhuda. In the 1980's followed notable compositions for Bazaar, Ahista Ahista, Umrao Jaan and Muzaffar Ali’s unreleased Zooni. His ghazal compilation Asha aur Khaiyyam released in 1996 with Asha Bhosle also did extremely well.