Renowned Persian scientist Abu Rayhan Mohammad Ibn Ahmad Al Biruni (AD973-1048) was a contemporary of the great physician Ibn Sina, with whom he maintained a rapport that benefited science. With proficiency in many languages, including Farsi, Turkish, Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic, Al Biruni caught the attention of the Ghaznavid ruler, Mahmoud of Ghazni (who ruled from 998-1030 and for whom the poet Firdawsi authored his famous “Shahnamah” [The Book of Kings], a epic poem that took nearly 3 decades to complete). Mahmoud often brought Al Biruni with him on campaigns to India, where the scientist learnt the language and acquainted himself with its history and otherwise familiarised himself with scientists working there. His “Kitab Al Hind” (The Book of India), was one of the first in-depth monographs on the subcontinent and served as a reference guide for generations of scholars.
In addition to his numerous studies on culture and history, Al Biruni was an accomplished astronomer who “pioneered the notion that the speed of light was much greater than the speed of sound, observed solar and lunar eclipses, and accepted the theory that the Earth rotated on an axis long before anyone else”. In geography, he calculated the correct latitude and longitude of many places and disagreed with the European Ptolemaic view that Africa stretched infinitely to the south; Al Biruni insisted it was surrounded by water. In his seminal work on India, he advanced the controversial view — which was later proved correct — that the Indus valley was once a sea basin. In physics, he accurately determined the densities of 18 precious stones and metals; in botany, he “observed that flowers have 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8 petals, but never 7 or 9”. Numerous other discoveries transformed the polymath into the medieval world’s most respected scientist, perhaps one of the greatest of all times, who stood peerless for centuries and held on to his faith.
Life and times
Al Biruni, who became known as Alberonius in Latin, was born on September 5, 973, in Kath, along the borders of today’s Pakistan/India but then part of Persia. A precocious child, an avid reader as well as a gifted linguist, the young man spent the first 25 years of his life studying theology, focusing on Usul Al Fiqh. Innate curiosity drew him to the sciences. Mathematics and astronomy fascinated him. With the Turkification of the region, Al Biruni, expanded his horizons and quickly acquired additional language skills, which further enriched his cultural portfolio.
In 995, he left for Bukhara, then a leading centre of learning under Mansour II, where he became aware of such scholars as Ibn Sina, with whom he corresponded. Within three years, Al Biruni was in Tabaristan (Iran), where the Ziyarid ruler Abul Hassan Qaboos Bin Wishmakir Shams Al Ma‘alah welcomed him to his court as an adviser. It was in this setting that he composed his first critical work, “Al Athar Al Baqqiyah ‘an Al Qurun Al Khaliyyah” (“The Remaining Traces of Past Centuries” that was transliterated as “Chronology of Ancient Nations”), which provided the first assessment of scientific knowledge in a chronological fashion.
By 1017, leading Muslim scholars living under the Ghaznavids moved to Ghazni, where Al Biruni became the court astrologer. Because Mahmoud appreciated his talents, the ruler asked the scientist to accompany him during his invasions of India that, in retrospect, opened a whole new world to the learned man. In some ways, it was India that propelled him to fame, as he spent at least 12 years imbibing information about the subcontinent and its immeasurable human wealth. He acquired a strong knowledge of Sanskrit and other contemporary Indian languages, delved into Hindu philosophy and sciences, and concentrated on knowledge rather than patronage or favouritism so common in court affairs.
He died on December 11, 1048, in Ghazni, in today’s Afghanistan, which was then the capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty that ruled eastern Iranian lands and the northwestern Indian subcontinent.
The ultimate scientist
Of nearly 150 books known to have been written by Al Biruni, 95 were devoted to astronomy, mathematics and related subjects such as mathematical geography. His preference to applied, rather than theoretical, mathematics were evident, as his primary interest was to focus on various processes to solve problems. Likewise, although his main concern in astronomy was for computations to help Muslim worshippers figure out how best to position themselves towards Makkah, he also devoted some attention to theoretical questions, including the possible motion of the Earth. Al Biruni acknowledged that he could neither prove nor disprove the Earth’s rotation, yet provided some comments on the idea that the Earth rotated, especially after he gained extensive knowledge on the subject from Indian scientists. His “Miftah ‘Ilm Al Hai’ah” (Key to Astronomy) maintains that “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. … 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.”
Towards that end, he developed a new technique for measuring the difference in longitude between two given cities: he computed the longitudinal difference between Baghdad and Ghazni at 24:20°, which differed from the modern value by only 18 minutes. In the same vein, he also described a method for calculating the circumference of the Earth — which was different from those preserved in Greek sources — relying on astrolabes then utilised to calculate its movement.
In the “Mas‘udi Canon”, his major extant astronomical work, Al Biruni relied on observational data to disprove Ptolemy’s immobile solar apogee. He also debated with Ibn Sina on Aristotle’s celestial physics, which he found to be of poor quality on account that the Greek dismissed the role that vacuum played, insisting that vacuum must indeed exist. In fact, Al Biruni stated his “amazement in how weak Aristotle’s argument against elliptical orbits was on the basis that they would create vacuum, and attacked the immutability of celestial spheres”. Again, all of this research was intended for practical purposes, which time exonerated. Indeed, Al Biruni’s various attempts to record and classify all previously known methods for astrolabe projections, as well as methods that he himself proposed, were intended to calculate geographical map projections that would assist the believer to locate the direction of the Qiblah in Makkah.
Remarkably, he devised a fresh method to determine the radius of the Earth by means of the observation of the height of a mountain, and carried it out at Nandana in India. By locating the specific position of a designated place relative to other spots, he could successfully determine their latitudes and longitudes, and the computation of their azimuths of the Qiblah.
In addition to astronomy, Al Biruni was also interested in gathering precise information on plants and their medicinal uses, which eventually evolved into pharmacology. In fact, by the end of his long life, his research identified nearly 1,200 drugs extracted from various plants, and arranged them alphabetically in a treatise entitled the “Kitab Al Saydanah”. He defined Saydanah or Saydalah — from which the Arabic word Saydaliyyah (Pharmacy) comes — as the individual “who makes a profession of gathering medications in their best forms and of experimentally testing the best types, whether they be simple or compound, according to the best formulas transmitted by the most renowned physicians”. By further describing a relation between pharmacology and medicine, with the former assisting the latter, he added significant value to both. Some of his experiments with metals and minerals calculated with precision their specific gravity.
Interest in the history of religion
As a devout Muslim, Al Biruni provided valuable assessments of the history of religion, especially to fellow Muslims. A pioneer scholar who 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”. An immensely tolerant individual, perhaps the result of his cultural and linguistic immersions in other societies, Al Biruni’s hypothesis was that all cultures were related to each other because they were all human constructs. He argued that a common human element existed in every culture, which, by definition, allowed them to mix even when so many traits separated them.
To his credit, Al Biruni dismissed scholars, including Muslim learned men, who failed to engage primary sources in their study of Hinduism. What he knew of before his Indian epiphany was both insufficient and, by his own acknowledgement, dishonest. “Guided by a sense of ethics and a desire to learn, he sought to explain the religious behaviour of different groups” and, to better explain Hinduism, he divided followers of that faith into educated and uneducated classes. Indeed, he described the educated as “monotheistic, believing that God was one, eternal and omnipotent, and eschewing all forms of idol worship”, while he recognised that “uneducated Hindus worshipped a multiplicity of idols”. In all fairness, he also pointed out that uneducated Muslims (such as the Jabiriyyah, who believed that there was no free will and that whatever they did was pre-written) adopted anthropomorphic concepts of God, which were far from the truth.
Al Biruni was fair and open-minded not only towards Hindus but to other faiths too. He rejected religious relativism, insisting that while he did not accept beliefs that were unacceptable to Muslims, it was equally wrong to condemn everyone unfairly. A typical example was his assessment of reports by Muslim authors about a celebration during which Nestorian Christians supposedly engaged in orgies. Naturally, he considered such reportage defamatory, as he suggested caution before making sweeping declarations. “May God protect us,” he wrote, “from slandering anyone, whether friend or foe, and especially the sect of the Christians. For although their doctrines are bad, their way of life is the highest pinnacle of chastity and integrity, and kindliness towards everyone.”
Legacy to Arabs and Muslims
In a celebrated preface to his book on pharmacology, Al Biruni wrote: “And if it is true that in all nations one likes to adorn oneself by using the language to which one has remained loyal, having become accustomed to using it with friends and companions according to need, I must judge for myself that in my native Khwarezmian [part of the Persian family of languages], science has as much chance of becoming perpetuated as a camel has of facing the Ka‘abah.” Although this was probably meant to be a warning to those whose narrow-mindedness did not allow for emancipation, Al Biruni firmly believed that scientific knowledge strengthened faith, seldom weakened it. His singular legacy was to marry core beliefs with excellence, aware that one did not negate the other, and that true science added significant value to man’s understanding of creation.
Most importantly, for Muslims, he developed a theory for calculating the direction of the Qiblah in Makkah from any place.
Dr Joseph A. Kéchichian is the author of the just published Legal and Political Reforms in Sa‘udi Arabia (London: Routledge).
This article is the tenth of a series on Muslim thinkers who greatly influenced Arab societies across the centuries.
