Al-Biruni

Life

Early years in Khwarazm

Al-Biruni spent the first twenty-five years of his life in Khwarazm, where he studied Islamic jurisprudence, theology, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy, and dabbled not only in the field of physics but in most of the other sciences of his day. His mother tongue was Khwarezmian, an Eastern Iranian language that survived in the region for several centuries after the coming of Islam, until its Turkification; at least some of the culture of ancient Khwarezm endured with it, for it is hard to imagine that a commanding figure such as Biruni, a repository of so much knowledge, should have appeared in a cultural vacuum.

He was sympathetic to the Afrighids, who were overthrown by the rival dynasty of the Ma'munids in 995. He left his homeland for Bukhara, then under the Samanid ruler Mansur II, the son of Nuh II, and corresponded with Avicenna; their exchange of views is extant.

Tabaristan and Gurganj

In 998 he went to the court of the Ziyarid amir of Tabaristan, Qabus (r. 977–981, 997–1012). There he wrote his first major work, al-Āthār al-bāqiya ʿan al-qurūn al-khāliya ("The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries", also translated as "Chronology of Ancient Nations" or "Vestiges of the Past"), on historical and scientific chronology, probably around 1000, though he later revised it. He also visited the court of the Bavandid ruler Al-Marzuban. Accepting the definite demise of the Afrighids at the hands of the Ma'munids, he made peace with the latter, who then ruled Khwarazm. Their court at Gurganj was gaining a reputation as a gathering place for brilliant scientists, and there he collaborated again with his former teacher Abu Nasr Mansur.

Ghazni and India

In July 1017, following the murder of the Khwarazmshah Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Khwarazm and took Kath; in the same year he also captured Rey. Al-Biruni, Abu Nasr Mansur and most other scholars left with the victorious Mahmud, possibly as prisoners, and were brought to Ghazni, the Ghaznavid capital in what is now central-eastern Afghanistan, where al-Biruni spent much of the rest of his life.

He was made court astrologer and, from 1017, accompanied Mahmud on his campaigns in the Indian subcontinent, living there for several years; he was 44 at the time of the first journey. He became acquainted with all things related to India, and from his exploration of the Hindu faith and of Indian culture came his treatise Tārīkh al-Hind ("The History of India"), which he completed around 1030. He also made sure to extend his study to the sciences while on the expeditions, seeking a method to measure the height of the sun and devising a makeshift quadrant for that purpose, and was able to make much progress in his research over the frequent travels he undertook throughout the lands of India.

Astronomy

Of the 146 books written by al-Bīrūnī, 95 are devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like mathematical geography. He lived during the Islamic Golden Age, when the Abbasid Caliphs promoted astronomical research, because such research possessed not only a scientific but also a religious dimension: in Islam, worship and prayer require a knowledge of the precise directions of sacred locations, which can be determined accurately only through the use of astronomical data. In carrying out his research, al-Biruni used a variety of different techniques dependent upon the particular field of study involved.

His major work on astrology is primarily an astronomical and mathematical text; he states: "I have begun with Geometry and proceeded to Arithmetic and the Science of Numbers, then to the structure of the Universe and finally to Judicial Astrology [sic], for no one who is worthy of the style and title of Astrologer [sic] who is not thoroughly conversant with these for sciences." In these earlier chapters he lays the foundations for the final chapter, on astrological prognostication, which he criticises. In a later work, he wrote a refutation of astrology, in contradistinction to the legitimate science of astronomy, for which he expresses wholehearted support. Some suggest that his reasons for refuting astrology relate to the methods used by astrologers being based upon pseudoscience rather than empiricism and also to a conflict between the views of the astrologers and those of the orthodox theologians of Sunni Islam.

He wrote an extensive commentary on Indian astronomy in the Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind, mostly translation of Aryabhatta's work, in which he claims to have resolved the matter of Earth's rotation in a work on astronomy that is no longer extant, his Miftah-ilm-alhai'a ("Key to Astronomy"):

The rotation of the earth does in no way impair the value of astronomy, as all appearances of an astronomic character can quite as well be explained according to this theory as to the other. There are, however, other reasons which make it impossible. This question is most difficult to solve. The most prominent of both modern and ancient astronomers have deeply studied the question of the moving of the earth, and tried to refute it. We, too, have composed a book on the subject called Miftah-ilm-alhai'a (Key to Astronomy), in which we think we have surpassed our predecessors, if not in the words, at all events in the matter.

In his major astronomical work, the Mas'ud Canon, Biruni observed that, contrary to Ptolemy, the Sun's apogee (highest point in the heavens) was mobile, not fixed. He wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, describing how to use it to tell the time and as a quadrant for surveying. One particular diagram of an eight-geared device could be considered an ancestor of later Muslim astrolabes and clocks. More recently, Biruni's eclipse data was used by Dunthorne in 1749 to help determine the acceleration of the Moon, and his data on equinox times and eclipses was used as part of a study of Earth's past rotation.

Refutation of Eternal Universe

Like later adherents of the Ash'ari school, such as al-Ghazali, al-Biruni is famous for vehemently defending the majority Sunni position that the universe had a beginning, being a strong supporter of creatio ex nihilo, specifically refuting the philosopher Ibn Sina in a multiple letter correspondence. Al-Biruni stated:

"Other people, besides, hold this foolish persuasion, that time has no terminus quo at all."

He further stated that Aristotle, whose arguments Avicenna uses, contradicted himself when he stated that the universe and matter has a start whilst holding on to the idea that matter is pre-eternal. In his letters to Avicenna, he stated the argument of Aristotle, that there is a change in the creator. He further argued that stating there is a change in the creator would mean there is a change in the effect (meaning the universe has change) and that the universe coming into being after not being is such a change (and so arguing there is no change – no beginning – means Aristotle believes the creator is negated). Al-Biruni was proud of the fact that he followed the textual evidence of the religion without being influenced by Greek philosophers such as Aristotle.

Physics

Al-Biruni contributed to the introduction of the scientific method to medieval mechanics. He developed experimental methods to determine density, using a particular type of hydrostatic balance. His method was precise, and he was able to measure the density of many different substances, including precious metals, gems, and even air; he also wrote extensively on the subject of density, including the different types of densities and how they are measured, work that proved very influential. He likewise applied an experimental method to determine the radius of the Earth, by measuring the angle of elevation of the horizon from the top of a mountain and comparing it to that from a nearby plain, as described in the following section.

Geography and geodesy

Bīrūnī devised a novel method of determining the Earth's radius by means of the observation of the height of a mountain. He carried it out at Nandana in Pind Dadan Khan (present-day Pakistan). He used trigonometry to calculate the radius of the Earth using measurements of the height of a hill and measurement of the dip in the horizon from the top of that hill. Sparavigna writes that his calculated radius for the Earth of 3928.77 miles was 2% higher than the actual mean radius of 3847.80 miles. His estimate was given as 12,803,337 cubits, so the accuracy of his estimate compared to the modern value depends on what conversion is used for cubits. The exact length of a cubit is not clear; with an 18-inch cubit his estimate would be 3,600 miles, whereas with a 22-inch cubit his estimate would be 4,200 miles. One significant problem with this approach is that Al-Biruni was not aware of atmospheric refraction and made no allowance for it. He used a dip angle of 34 arc minutes in his calculations, but refraction can typically alter the measured dip angle by about 1/6, making his calculation only accurate to within about 20% of the true value.

In his Codex Masudicus (1037), Al-Biruni theorized the existence of a landmass along the vast ocean between Asia and Europe, or what is today known as the Americas. He argued for its existence on the basis of his accurate estimations of the Earth's circumference and Afro-Eurasia's size, which he found spanned only two-fifths of the Earth's circumference, reasoning that the geological processes that gave rise to Eurasia must surely have given rise to lands in the vast ocean between Asia and Europe. He also theorized that at least some of the unknown landmass would lie within the known latitudes which humans could inhabit, and therefore would be inhabited.

Pharmacology and mineralogy

Biruni wrote a pharmacopoeia, the Book on the Pharmacopoeia of Medicine (Arabic: كتاب الصيدنة في الطب, romanized: Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb (Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb). It lists synonyms for drug names in Syriac, Persian, Greek, Baluchi, Afghan, Kurdish, and some Indian languages.

He also used his hydrostatic balance to determine the density and purity of metals and precious stones, and classified gems by what he considered their primary physical properties, such as specific gravity and hardness, rather than the common practice of the time of classifying them by colour.

History and chronology

Biruni's main essay on political history, Book of nightly conversation concerning the affairs of Khārazm (Persian: کتاب گفتگوهای شبانه درباره‌ی اخبار خوارزم, romanized: Ketāb-e Goftogūhā-ye Shabāne darbāreye Aḵhbār-e Ḵhārazm; Arabic: Kitāb al-musāmara fī aḵbār Ḵᵛārazm) is now known only from quotations in Bayhaqi's Tārīkh-e Masʿūdī. In addition to this, various discussions of historical events and methodology are found in connection with the lists of kings in his al-Āthār al-bāqiya and in the Qānūn, as well as elsewhere in the Āthār, in India, and scattered throughout his other works. The Chronology of Ancient Nations in particular attempted to accurately establish the length of various historical eras.

History of religions

Biruni is widely considered to be one of the most important Muslim authorities on the history of religion. He is known as a pioneer in the field of comparative religion in his study of, among other creeds, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. He assumed the superiority of Islam: "We have here given an account of these things in order that the reader may learn by the comparative treatment of the subject how much superior the institutions of Islam are, and how more plainly this contrast brings out all customs and usages, differing from those of Islam, in their essential foulness." However he was happy on occasion to express admiration for other cultures, and quoted directly from the sacred texts of other religions when reaching his conclusions. He strove to understand them on their own terms rather than trying to prove them wrong. His underlying concept was that all cultures are at least distant relatives of all other cultures because they are all human constructs. "Rather, what Al-Biruni seems to be arguing is that there is a common human element in every culture that makes all cultures distant relatives, however foreign they might seem to one another."

Al-Biruni divides Hindus into an educated and an uneducated class. He describes the educated as monotheistic, believing that God is one, eternal, and omnipotent and eschewing all forms of idol worship. He recognizes that uneducated Hindus worshiped a multiplicity of idols yet points out that even some Muslims (such as the Jabriyah) have adopted anthropomorphic concepts of God.

Anthropology

Al-Biruni wrote about the peoples, customs and religions of the Indian subcontinent. According to Akbar S. Ahmed, like modern anthropologists, he engaged in extensive participant observation with a given group of people, learnt their language and studied their primary texts, presenting his findings with objectivity and neutrality using cross-cultural comparisons. Ahmed concluded that Al-Biruni can be considered as the first anthropologist; others, however, have argued that he can hardly be considered an anthropologist in the conventional sense.

Indology

Biruni's fame as an Indologist rests primarily on two texts. The first is his encyclopedic work on India, Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah (variously translated as Verifying All That the Indians Recount, the Reasonable and the Unreasonable, or The book confirming what pertains to India, whether rational or despicable), in which he explored nearly every aspect of Indian life; the second is his translation of the yoga sutras of the Indian sage Patanjali, under the title Tarjamat ketāb Bātanjalī fi’l-ḵalāṣ men al-ertebāk.

During his journey through India, military and political history were not Biruni's main focus: he decided rather to document the civilian and scholarly aspects of Hindu life, examining culture, science, and religion. He explored religion within a rich cultural context. He expressed his objectives with simple eloquence:

I shall not produce the arguments of our antagonists in order to refute such of them, as I believe to be in the wrong. My book is nothing but a simple historic record of facts. I shall place before the reader the theories of the Hindus exactly as they are, and I shall mention in connection with them similar theories of the Greeks in order to show the relationship existing between them.

An example of Biruni's analysis is his summary of why many Hindus hate Muslims. Biruni notes in the beginning of his book how the Muslims had a hard time learning about Hindu knowledge and culture. He explains that Hinduism and Islam are totally different from each other. Moreover, Hindus in 11th century India had suffered waves of destructive attacks on many of its cities, and Islamic armies had taken numerous Hindu slaves to Persia, which – claimed Biruni – contributed to Hindus becoming suspicious of all foreigners, not just Muslims. Hindus considered Muslims violent and impure, and did not want to share anything with them. Over time, Biruni won the welcome of Hindu scholars. Al-Biruni collected books and studied with these Hindu scholars to become fluent in Sanskrit, discover and translate into Arabic the mathematics, science, medicine, astronomy and other fields of arts as practiced in 11th-century India. He was inspired by the arguments offered by Indian scholars who believed earth must be globular in shape, which they felt was the only way to fully explain the difference in daylight hours by latitude, seasons and Earth's relative positions with Moon and stars. At the same time, Biruni was also critical of Indian scribes, who he believed carelessly corrupted Indian documents while making copies of older documents. He also criticized the Hindus on what he saw them do and not do, for example finding them deficient in curiosity about history and religion.

One of the specific aspects of Hindu life that Biruni studied was the Hindu calendar. His scholarship on the topic exhibited great determination and focus, not to mention the excellence in his approach of the in-depth research he performed. He developed a method for converting the dates of the Hindu calendar to the dates of the three different calendars that were common in the Islamic countries of his time period, the Greek, the Arab/Muslim, and the Persian. Biruni also employed astronomy in the determination of his theories, which were complex mathematical equations and scientific calculations that allows one to convert dates and years between the different calendars.

The book does not limit itself to tedious records of battle because Biruni found the social culture to be more important. The work includes research on a vast array of topics of Indian culture, including descriptions of their traditions and customs. Although he tried to stay away from political and military history, Biruni did indeed record important dates and noted actual sites of where significant battles occurred. Additionally, he chronicled stories of Indian rulers and told of how they ruled over their people with their beneficial actions and acted in the interests of the nation. His details are brief and mostly just list rulers without referring to their real names, and he did not go on about deeds that each one carried out during their reign, which keeps in line with Biruni's mission to try to stay away from political histories. Biruni also described the geography of India in his work. He documented different bodies of water and other natural phenomena. These descriptions are useful to today's modern historians because they are able to use Biruni's scholarship to locate certain destinations in modern-day India. Historians are able to make some matches while also concluding that certain areas seem to have disappeared and been replaced with different cities. Different forts and landmarks were able to be located, legitimizing Biruni's contributions with their usefulness to even modern history and archeology.

The dispassionate account of Hinduism given by Biruni was remarkable for its time. He stated that he was fully objective in his writings, remaining unbiased like a proper historian should. Biruni documented everything about India just as it happened. But, he did note how some of the accounts of information that he was given by natives of the land may not have been reliable in terms of complete accuracy, however, he did try to be as honest as possible in his writing. Eduard Sachau compares it to "a magic island of quiet, impartial research in the midst of a world of clashing swords, burning towns, and plundered temples." Biruni's writing was very poetic, which may diminish some of the historical value of the work for modern times. The lack of description of battle and politics makes those parts of the picture completely lost. However, many have used Biruni's work to check facts of history in other works that may have been ambiguous or had their validity questioned.

Religious views

Biruni, as a Muslim critical thinker, integrated in his studies between 'aql (reason) and naql (revelation).

Al-Biruni did not say whether he was Sunni or Shia; rather, he only identified as a Muslim. According to historian Walter J. Fischel, Al-Biruni was "the greatest Muslim Hebraist".

According to Yasir Qadhi, Al-Biruni was "not pro-Hadith" and was "sceptical of the Hadith". Al-Biruni rejected hadiths which contradicted science. For example, his rejection of the fasting hadith on Ashura, which is reported in Sahih al-Bukhari, was based on historical and scientific reasoning, indicating a critical approach to hadith where he found contradictions with verifiable facts. Al-Biruni used astronomical and historical calculations to argue that the 10th of Muharram (Ashura) could not have coincided with the Jewish day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, 10th of Tishri) in the second year of the Hijra, as suggested by some hadiths. He noted that the dates could not have fallen on the same day, thus the premise of the hadith that the prophet Muhammad fasted because the Jews did was historically and astronomically flawed.

Al-Biruni counted as "caliphs" Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Hasan ibn Ali; the Umayyads were designated as "kings", the Abbasids as "imams". Al-Biruni defended the Mu'tazilites against a slanderous misrepresentation of their doctrines. He was critical of Sufism.

Al-Biruni was as unequivocal in rejecting beliefs unacceptable to Muslims as he is in condemning unfair criticism of other faiths, such as Christianity. Though he criticised the Trinity, he believed that the Tawrat and Injeel use the words "father" and "son" in a metaphorical, as well as a literal, sense.

Legacy

Following Al-Biruni's death, his work was neither built upon nor referenced by scholars. Centuries later, his writings about India, which had become of interest to the British Raj, were revisited.

The lunar crater Al-Biruni and the asteroid 9936 Al-Biruni are named in his honour. Biruni Island in Antarctica is named after al-Biruni. In Iran, surveying engineers are celebrated on al-Biruni's birthday.

In June 2009, Iran donated a pavilion to the United Nations Office in Vienna, placed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Center. Named the Scholars Pavilion, it features the statues of four prominent Iranian scholars: Avicenna, Abu Reyhan Biruni, Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) and Omar Khayyam.

In popular culture

A film about the life of Al-Biruni, Abu Raykhan Beruni, was released in the Soviet Union in 1974.

Irrfan Khan portrayed Al-Biruni in the 1988 Doordarshan historical drama Bharat Ek Khoj. He has been portrayed by Cüneyt Uzunlar in the Turkish television series Alparslan: Büyük Selçuklu on TRT 1.