Al-Biruni was an Islamic scholar who served on the courts of more than six caliphs. Like many of the great thinkers of the Islamic world’s Golden Age, his quest for truth motivated him to seek knowledge through research and innovation. He did this in the name of Allah. Al-Biruni set himself apart from his peers through his sheer range of expertise and drive for perfection. His considerable progress in astronomy, mathematics, geography, comparative religion, physical sciences, and history earned the respect of his colleagues, influenced countless academic followers, and remains as an inspiration to all who study his work today.
Abu Raihan Biruni (973-1053 CE) was an Iranian scholar whose extraordinary achievements include predicting the existence of landmasses (North and South America) on the opposite side of the Earth and calculating the radius of the Earth five centuries before the European Renaissance. In Brilliant Biruni, Mohammad S. Kamiar presents the life of one of the greatest scholars in the history of the world: the story of a boy who became Biruni. From his boyhood home in the Village of Vasemereed to his final resting place in the city of Ghazna, Afghanistan, Brilliant Biruni: The Story of Abu Rayhan Mohammad Ibn Ahmad documents and describes the life story of this important geographer, prolific author, and groundbreaking scientist who brightened the dark skies of the Middle Ages. Written in accessible language and free of jargon, this biography sheds light on the neglected but influential scholar, giving Biruni the recognition he deserves.
"Abu Raihan Mohammad Ibn Ahmad (973-1053 C.E.) was an Iranian scholar, also known as Biruni, whose extraordinary achievements include predicting the existence of landmasses on the opposite side of the Earth (North and South America) and calculating the radius of the Earth five centuries before the European Renaissance. Biruni was more than just a great scholar - he was a humanitarian and a man of honor. For the first time, a complete list of Biruni's numerous books on cartography, mathematics, astronomy, history, and geology is presented in a single volume." "Divided into five parts, A Bio-Bibliography for Biruni gives general background information on Biruni's time, his world, and his life, providing the complete names of his 183 books as well as documentation of Internet sites providing biographical information. The titles of these books are given in Arabic, Persian, and English, and they are all annotated and, where possible, the number of folios is given. A list of articles, bibliographies, books, and Internet sites in English completes this volume. This selected research bibliography is for those individuals who are interested in the history of science, scientific research, and scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.
Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni (973–1048) was a brilliant polymath who wrote on diverse subjects in the natural and human sciences, including calendars, history, geography, astronomy, Indology, mineralogy, and pharmacology. Born in Khwarazm, he lived in various places in Central Asia, Iran, and medieval Afghanistan. His fortunes came to be closely linked with the Ghaznavid dynasty at its apogee, during the reign of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (d. 1030). He was widely famed for the meticulous, objective and systematic quality of his thought, and remained an admired scientist and scholar of the eastern Islamic world in subsequent centuries. His curiosity ranged across cosmic, earthly, and human timescales and his willingness to be puzzled by reality and interested in others’ perspectives, strikingly in his observations on Indian culture and religion, demonstrate a remarkably open and tolerant mind. In this book, Malagaris places Biruni in his historical and cultural context within the long-term history of Central Asia. He outlines the trajectory of Biruni’s life, clarifying key questions about his associations, travels, and patrons. Following an overview of Biruni’s chief interests, Malagaris details Biruni’s major works to illustrate the breadth of his output and his intellectual approach, especially his attention to language, his esteem for knowledge, and his commitment to objective truth. An account of the institutional context and competition among patrons helps explain some of his friendships and rivalries, notably with Avicenna. Malagaris also shows how varied paths of transmission affected the legacy of Biruni and his reception in global scientific and literary traditions. Finally, a detailed bibliographic essay, timeline, and list of key works will guide readers into further study of Biruni and his thought.
Al-Biruni was an Islamic scholar who served on the courts of more than six caliphs. Like many of the great thinkers of the Islamic world’s Golden Age, his quest for truth motivated him to seek knowledge through research and innovation. He did this in the name of Allah. Al-Biruni set himself apart from his peers through his sheer range of expertise and drive for perfection. His considerable progress in astronomy, mathematics, geography, comparative religion, physical sciences, and history earned the respect of his colleagues, influenced countless academic followers, and remains as an inspiration to all who study his work today.
In The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science Mario Kozah closely examines the pioneering contribution by Bīrūnī (d. ca. 1048) to the study of comparative religion in his major work on India. Kozah concludes that a process of Islamisation is employed through a meticulous systematization of Hindu beliefs into one “Indian religion”, preceding by almost a millennium the earliest definitions of Hinduism by nineteenth-century European Orientalists. This formulation of Hinduism draws on Bīrūnī’s interpretation of Yoga psychology articulated in the Kitāb Bātanjal, his Arabic translation of the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. Bīrūnī’s Islamic reading of Hinduism relies on certain common denominators that he identifies as being of fundamental importance. In the case of Hinduism he identifies metempsychosis as its unifying banner.
This is the only book to deal with classical Islamic cosmology as it was formulated by the Ikhwan al-S'afa al Biruni and Ibn Sina during the tenth and eleventh centuries. These figures influenced all the later centuries of Islamic history and in fact created the cosmological framework within which all later scientific activity in the Islamic world was carried out--the enduring image of the cosmos within which Muslims have lived during the past millennium. Nasr writes from within the Islamic tradition and demonstrates how, based on the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet, the figures treated in this work integrated elements drawn from various ancient schools of philosophy and the sciences. This book is unique in its treatment of classical Islamic cosmology as seen from within the Islamic world-view and provides a key for understanding of traditional Islamic thought.
