against Britain. In 1996 as leader of the National Opposition Front, al Beidh demanded a referendum in the south to secure better terms for the region. Two years later he was sentenced to death in absentia for his role in the 1994 civil war.
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Al-Biruni, Abu al-Ray
Al-Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy and natural sciences. He also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He was conversant in Chorasmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Turkic, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan, capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty which ruled eastern Iranian lands and the northwestern Indian subcontinent.
In 1017 he traveled to the Indian subcontinent and became the most important interpreter of Indian science to the Islamic world. He is given titles such as the “founder of Indology” and the “first anthropologist”. He was an impartial writer on custom and creeds of various nations and was given the title al-Ustdadh (“The Master”) for his remarkable description of early 11th century India. He also made contributions to Earth sciences and is regarded as the “father of geodesy” for his important contributions to that field, along with his significant contributions to geography.
Life:
He was born in the outer district of Kath, the capital of the Afrighid dynasty of Chorasmia. The word Biruni means “outer-district” in Persian and so this became his nisba: “al-Bīrūnī” = “the Birunian”. His first twenty-five years were spent in Chorasmia where he studied Fiqh, theology, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, medics and other sciences.
He was sympathetic to the Afrighids, who were overthrown by the rival dynasty of Ma’munids in 995. Leaving his homeland, he left for Bukhara, then under the Samanid ruler Mansur II the son of Nuh. There he also corresponded with Avicenna.
In 998, he went to the court of the Ziyarid Amir of Tabaristan, Shams al-Mo’ali Abul-Hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir. There he wrote his first important work, al-Athar al-Baqqiya ‘an al-Qorun al-Khaliyya (literally: “The remaining traces of past centuries” and translated as “Chronology of ancient nations” or “Vestiges of the Past”) on historical and scientific chronology, probably around 1000 A.D., though he later made some amendments to the book. Accepting the definite demise of the Afrighids at the hands of the Ma’munids, he made peace with the latter who then ruled Chorasmia. Their court at Gorganj (also in Chorasmia) was gaining fame for its gathering of brilliant scientists.
In 1012, al-Biruni returned to his native Khwarizm where he resumed his studies. In 1017, Mahmud of Ghazni took Rey. Most scholars, including al-Biruni, were taken to Ghazna, the capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty. Biruni was made court astrologer and accompanied Mahmud on his invasions into India, living there for a few years. Biruni became acquainted with all things related to India. He may even have learned some Sanskrit. During this time he wrote the Kitab Ta’rikh al-Hind, finishing it around 1030.
Mathematics and Astronomy:
Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī, about 65 percent, were devoted to astronomy, mathematics and related subjects like mathematical geography. Biruni’s major work on astrology is primarily an astronomical and mathematical text, only the last chapter concerns astrological prognostication. His endorsement of astrology is limited, in so far as he condemns horary astrology as ‘sorcery’.
Biruni wrote an extensive commentary on Indian astronomy in the Kitab Ta’rikh al-Hind, 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.”
Physics:
Al-Biruni contributed to the introduction of the experimental scientific method of mechanics, unified statics and dynamics into the science of mechanics and combined the fields of hydrostatics with dynamics to create hydrodynamics.
Geography:
Biruni also devised his own method of determining the radius of the earth by means of the observation of the height of a mountain and carried it out at Nandana in India.
Pharmacology and Mineralogy:
Due to an apparatus he constructed himself, he succeeded in determining the specific gravity of a certain number of metals and minerals with remarkable precision.
History and Chronology:
Biruni’s main essay on political history, Kitab al-Musāmara fīa
History of Religions:
Bīrūnī is one of the most important Muslim authorities on the history of religion. Al-Biruni was a pioneer in the study of comparative religion. He studied Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and other religions. He treated religions objectively, striving 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.
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, eschewing all forms of idol worship. He recognizes that uneducated Hindus worshipped a multiplicity of idols yet points out that even some Muslims (such as the Jabiriyya) have adopted anthropomorphic concepts of God. (Ataman, 2005)
Indology:
Biruni’s fame as an Indologist rests primarily on two texts. Al-Biruni wrote an encyclopedic work on India called “Tarikh Al-Hind” (History of India, also known as “Indica,” or simply “India”) in which he explored nearly every aspect of Indian life, including religion, history, geography, geology, science and mathematics. He explores religion within a rich cultural context. As an example of Al-Biruni’s analysis, is his summary of why many Hindus hate Muslims. He explains that Hinduism and Islam are totally different from each other. Moreover, Hindus
