His full name was Abu Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Biruni. He was born in September of 973 in Khwarezm, Khorasan and died in another city of Khorasan, Ghazna. He was a Tajik scholar and scientist and one of the most outstanding figure and learned man of his age.Biruni had excelled in many fields of the knowledge of the day particularly in astronomy, mathematics, chronology, physics, medicine, and history.
In 1030, Biruni completed the book Tarikh al-Hind (History of India). Many scholars consider this masterpiece as the most important treatise on Indian history and culture before twentieth century. The degree of objectivity and details that is displayed in this book Tarikh al-Hind is without parallel for the time and it is still of great value to the contemporary scholars.
He also completed another major book almost in the same time. It is the book called Kitab al-qanun al-Masudi fi l-hay a wa l-nujum (Canon of Masudi) and was dedicated to the Sultan Masud son of Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavid. This book is the largest and most important of Biruni's mathematical, geographical and astronomical studies.
Biruni himself has claimed to have authored more than one hundred treatise of varying length in his life time. They include works on arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and toward the end of his career, works on medical sciences. His collection of Indian and Chinese minerals, drugs, potions and other concoctions, still not systematically studied and may be of immense value to pharmacology.
His broad knowledge of astronomy and geography led him to the verge of modern scientific ideas. He believed that the apparent movement of celestial bodies are due to rotation of earth around its axis and also made accurate calculation of latitude and longitude. On the basis of reports of various flotsam found in the seas, He reasoned that the continent of Africa must be surrounded by water. It was a deviation from the popular Ptolemaic geography which was popular in the West and asserted the continent of Africa extended indefinitely to the south. On examining the Indus Valley, Biruni correctly guessed that once it had been a shallow sea filled in through the centuries by alluvial deposits from the river. Biruni also explained the operations of artesian springs and wells in terms of modern hydrostatic principles. He also determined with remarkable accuracy the densities of more than a dozen precious stones and metals.
1 comment:
A great historical figure. One to be proud of as a Muslim. These are the kind of people that have left some kind of pride hanging in the balance of the Islamic world.
What is there today, Siru? Can you point to a Muslim scientist that has contributed to humanity even a fraction of what Biruni has that is alive or that lived within the last century?
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