Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī

He was neither involved nor interested in horary astrology and even judged this branch of astrology as witchcraft.

This great scholar breathed his last in the mid-1050s in the Ghazna region, which is presently known as Ghazni, Afghanistan.

A crater on the moon has been christened ‘Al-Biruni’, as a mark of tribute to this great scholar.

Al-Biruni was born in the year 973, in the Khwarezm region of Khorasan, which is in present day Uzbekistan. Otherwise, much is not known about his childhood and family.

The region was ruled by the Khwarezm-Shah Dynasty at that time and one of its princes named Abu Nasr Mansur ibn Iraq, taught Abu Rayhan al-Biruni.

One of the Khwarezm-Shahs was murdered by his servant, which resulted in a civil war. This made Al-Biruni lose sponsorship from the Khwarezm-Shahs and he then went to the Samanid Dynasty and found shelter in Bukhara, the capital of Samanid.

Possibly, the Samanids also helped the overthrown prince Qabus ibn Voshmgir, and this helped al-Biruni get acquainted with this prince. In Voshmgir’s court, al-Biruni encountered Ibn Sina, thinker and researcher from Iran.

He had amassed knowledge on varied topics such as history, geography, mathematics, philosophy, grammar, astronomy, science and Islamic law. He even learnt Greek, Syrian and possibly Sanskrit too, apart from Arabic and Persian.

During his teenage, Al-Biruni had gained much knowledge on science and by the end of the tenth century he had calculated the latitude of the city of Kath.

He had written many works during the tenth century but most of them have gone missing. However, the one which is surviving till date is his speculation on map projections called ‘Cartography’. The work also contained theories of map projections by other scholars from which he had gained knowledge.

In the later part of the tenth century, political turbulence began in the Islamic regions, and his patron the Samanids were overthrown by the Mahmud of Ghazna. Al-Biruni was then taken in the court of Mahmud, including many other scholars, and was appointed the court soothsayer. He then, travelled to India along with Mahmud during its attack.

It is also believed that Abu Rayhan gained some knowledge of Sanskrit during that time and also penned his work named ‘Kitab al-Hind’.

His contribution towards science includes his findings of seven different ways to determine the north and south direction. He also found out a mathematical system to pinpoint the beginning of seasons.

One of his encyclopaedic works is the ‘Tahqiq ma li-l-hind min maqulah maqbulah fi al-aql aw mardhulah’ (Verifying All That the Indians Recount, the Reasonable and the Unreasonable). As the title suggests, it encompasses all the knowledge that al-Biruni had gained about India as a whole like its culture, literature, customs, rituals, religion and science.

Another encyclopaedic work of his which needs to be mentioned is ‘Al-Athar al-baqiyyah an al-qurun al-khaliyyah’ (The Chronology of Ancient Nations). He dedicated this book to Prince Qabus. This book includes details about different cultures around the world.