Born 4 September 973
Diedpossibly Ghazna (Afghanistan), 1048
Bīrūnī was one of the most accomplished scientists of the entire Middle Ages, and his interests extended to almost all branches of science. The total number of his works, mostly in Arabic, is about 180, of which only 39 are extant. Approximately half of these writings are in the exact sciences. In addition to mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, he was accomplished in the fields of chronology, geography, pharmacology, and meteorology.
Bīrūnī was born in the “outskirts” (bīrūn) of Kāth, a city in the district of ancient Khwārizm, which is located south of the Aral Sea. At the beginning of his career, he worked for the Sāmānid ruler Manṣūr II, but due to political turmoil he had to change his patrons frequently. Eventually, he was captured as a political prisoner by the Ghaznawid Sultan Maḥmūd and was taken to Ghazna, where he remained until his death.
In his youth, Bīrūnī studied Greek science, especially astronomy. He was...
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Selected References
Al-Bīrūnī, Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (1954–1956). Al-Qānūn al-Masҁūdī. Hyderabad. (This book has been translated into Russian; for English readers, Kennedy prepared a very convenient table of contents with brief summaries in English.)
Ali, Jamil (trans.) (1967). The Determination of the Coordinates of Cities: Al-Bīrūnī’s Taḥdīd al-Amākin. Beirut: American University of Beirut.
Barani, Syed Hasan (1951). “Muslim Researches in Geodesy.” In Al-Bīrūnī Commemoration Volume, A.H. 362-A.H. 1362. Calcutta: Iran Society, pp. 1–52.
Boilot, D. J. (1955). “L’oeuvre d’al-Beruni, Essai bibliographique.” Mélange de l’Institut dominicain d’étude orientales 2: 161–256.
Kennedy, E. S. (1970). “Al-Bīrūnī.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. Vol. 2, pp. 147–158. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
— (1971). “Al-Bīrūnī’s Masudic Canon.” Al-Abhath 24: 59–81. (Reprinted in E. S. Kennedy, Colleagues, and Former Students, Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, edited by David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1983, pp. 573–595. [Contains a convenient table of contents of the al-Qānūn al-Masҁūdī with brief summaries in English.])
— (1973). A Commentary Upon Bīrūnī’s Kitāb Taḥdīd al-Amākin. Beirut: American University of Beirut.
— (1976). The Exhaustive Treatise on Shadows by Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī, translation and commentary. 2 Vols. Aleppo: Institute for the History of Arabic Science.
Sachau, C. Edward (1879). The Chronology of Ancient Nations. London.
— (1910). Alberuni’s India. 2 Vols. Reissue of the 1888 edition. London.
Samsó, Julio (1996). “Al-Bīrūnī’ in al-Andalus.” In From Baghdad to Barcelona: Essays on the History of the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet, edited by Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó. Vol. 2, pp. 583–612. Barcelona: Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa” de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe.
Wright, R. Ramsey (1934). The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology. London: Luzac and Co.
Yano, Michio (2002). “The First Equation Table for Mercury in the Huihui li.” In History of Oriental Astronomy, edited by S. M. Razaullah Ansari, pp. 33–43. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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Yano, M. (2014). Bīrūnī: Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_163
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