Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048) shows the Moslem scholar at his best. Philosopher, historian, traveler, geographer, linguist, mathematician, astronomer, poet, and physicist- and doing major and original work in all these fields- he was at least the Leibniz, `041225 almost the Leonardo, of Islam. Born like al-Khwarizmi near the modern Khiva, he signalized again the leadership of the Transcaspian region in this culminating century of medieval science. The princes of Khwarizm and Tabaristan, recognizing his talents, gave him a place at their courts. Hearing of the bevy of poets and philosophers at Khwarizm, Mahmud of Ghazni asked its prince to send him al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, and other savants; the prince felt obliged to comply (1018), and al-Biruni went to live in honor and studious peace with the bellicose ravisher of India. Perhaps it was in Mahmuds train that al-Biruni entered India; in any case he stayed there several years, and learned the language and the antiquities of the country. Returning to Mahmuds court, he became a favorite of that incalculable despot. A visitor from northern Asia offended the king by describing a region, which he claimed to have seen, where for many months the sun never set; Mahmud was about to imprison the man for jesting with royalty when al-Biruni explained the phenomenon to the satisfaction of the king and the great relief of the visitor. `041226 Mahmuds son Masud, himself an amateur scientist, showered gifts and money upon al-Biruni, who often returned them to the treasury as much exceeding his needs. His first major work (c. 1000) was a highly technical treatise - Vestiges of the Past (Athar-ul-Baqiya)- on the calendars and religious festivals of the Persians, Syrians, Greeks, Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, Zoroastrians, and Arabs. It is an unusually impartial study, utterly devoid of religious animosities. As a Moslem al-Biruni inclined to the Shia sect, with an unobtrusive tendency to agnosticism. He retained, however, a degree of Persian patriotism, and condemned the Arabs for destroying the high civilization of the Sasanian regime. `041227 Otherwise his attitude was that of the objective scholar, assiduous in research, critical in the scrutiny of traditions and texts (including the Gospels), precise and conscientious in statement, frequently admitting his ignorance, and promising to pursue his inquiries till the truth should emerge. In the preface to the Vestiges he wrote like Francis Bacon: We must clear our minds... from all causes that blind people to the truth- old custom, party spirit, personal rivalry or passion, the desire for influence. While his host was devastating India al-Biruni spent many years studying its peoples, languages, faiths, cultures, and castes. In 1030 he published his masterpiece, History of India ( Tarikh al-Hind ). At the outset he sharply distinguished between hearsay and eyewitness reports, and classified the varieties of liars who have written history. `041228 He spent little space on the political history of India, but gave forty-two chapters to Hindu astronomy, and eleven to Hindu religion. He was charmed by the Bhagavad Gita. He saw the similarity between the mysticism of the Vedanta, the Sufis, the Neopythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists; he compared excerpts from Indian thinkers with like passages from Greek philosophers, and expressed his preference for the Greeks. India, he wrote, has produced no Socrates; no logical method has there expelled fantasy from science. Nevertheless he translated several Sanskrit works of science into Arabic, and, as if to pay a debt, rendered into Sanskrit Euclids Elements and Ptolemys Almagest. His interest extended to nearly all the sciences. He gave the best medieval account of the Hindu numerals. He wrote treatises on the astrolabe, the planisphere, the armillary sphere; and formulated astronomical tables for Sultan Masud. He took it for granted that the earth is round, noted the attraction of all things towards the center of the earth, and remarked that astronomic data can be explained as well by supposing that the earth turns daily on its axis and annually around the sun, as by the reverse.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 00:50:13 +0000
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