The Islamic East a millennium ago: Biruni’s world

Biruni constantly investigated his complex world in its natural and historical aspects. He perceived his homeland of Khwarazm in the manner of a modern physical geographer while simultaneously maintaining awareness of its underlying cultural currents and far-flung connections with distant lands. He appreciated that the notion of a region depended on cultural and political factors; indeed, the modern usage of the terms Central Asia, Middle East, and South Asia implies a multiplicity of histories, as he doubtlessly would have understood. Biruni himself frequently commented on its significance and persistently sought to interpret its underlying tendencies throughout his writing. Whether he touched on the topics of ancient Iran, late antique Hellenism, or early medieval Islam, Biruni added to the knowledge of his contemporaries, and the survival of his works has augmented our own.

Reception of a polymath: Biruni in history

Biruni enjoyed a high reputation for learning during his lifetime, particularly among the Ghaznavid literati. Shortly after his passing, Biruni’s fictionalized depiction in Nizami Arudi’s advice manual dramatized relations between him, Ibn Sina, and Mahmud of Ghazna. Biographical dictionaries in the eastern and western regions of the Islamic world represented Biruni differently. In philosophical and theological circles enamoured with Aristotelianism, the tendentious text of Biruni’s correspondence with Ibn Sina may have negatively affected Biruni’s intellectual reputation. Yet among astronomers, chronologists, geographers and others, Biruni’s reputation remained strong and his fame for exactitude, rigour, and scientific reasoning endured. Biruni received greater attention in the Indo-Persian context than the Latinate European one, in part due to the translation and patronage of specific genres of texts. The modern period experienced a revival in Biruni’s reputation and a renewed awareness of his achievements.

Scientific and cultural research: overview of key works

This overview of Biruni’s works describes a selection of his surviving texts, which constitute the principal elements for his intellectual biography. With numerous works ascribed to Biruni, it is only possible here to concentrate on the major areas of his research. Accordingly, each selected book highlights the range of his scientific interests. For example, his attraction to calendars emerges prominently in studies such as Chronology and India, while geographical investigations can be found in Shadows and Determinations. Astronomical concerns are the focus of Astrology and the Canon. Cultural pursuits motivate his composition of Yoga and India. His accumulated knowledge of mineralogy shapes Gems and his reference work on medicaments appears in Pharmacology. To understand Biruni’s perspective, we should begin by allowing for the complexity of medieval thought generally, as well as the special qualities of his inquisitive intellect.

Life of a polymath: his autobiography and biography

Born in Khwarazm in 973, Biruni displayed an early interest in the pursuit of knowledge, which remained with him for several decades, during extensive travels and residence in Central Asia, Iran, and India. Biruni’s upbringing and education stimulated his youthful appetite for science and truth. After the political upheaval in his homeland, he spent some years in Iran seeking his livelihood with uncertain patronage before the opportunity arose to return to Khwarazm, where he joined the new government. Upon the overthrow of his patron and the subsequent Ghaznavid invasion, Biruni was drawn into the orbit of Sultan Mahmud’s court. He passed his mature years primarily in Ghazna, which occasioned extensive travels in northwest India. The death of Sultan Mahmud enabled Biruni’s brief return to Central Asia, although he continued to reside in the Ghaznavid capital. The polymath passed away in Ghazna in 1048.

Further reading: a guide to the literature

This bibliographic essay provides a guide to further reading and research into the life and works of Biruni. It comprises essential sources and scholarship globally, in English and in other languages. In the last two centuries, primary sources have been located, printed, translated, and commented upon in a variety of European languages, including English, German, French, Italian, and Russian. During the Cold War, Soviet scholarship kept pace with developments in Europe and the United States, but Atlantic-based scholarship has not always made itself aware of Soviet publications. Bibliographic studies grew throughout the last century and the number of articles on Biruni expanded remarkably in the 1970s, with more scholarship appearing in Persian, Urdu, Turkish, and Arabic. Biruni’s intellectual milieu emerged from late `Abbasid culture and sciences in the Central Asian context, with close ties to Iran and India.

Friends and rivals: knowledge, institutions, and relationships

Biruni appreciated that his research rested on intellectual achievements that originated many centuries earlier and required ongoing support to thrive. He often mentioned that Arabic science sprang from Near Eastern and Hellenistic traditions. In the medieval Islamic world, patrons promoted institutions of learning and developed relationships with clients, among them scholars with special capabilities, such as Biruni. Biruni saw himself as a participant in an interregional discourse which incorporated the thought of Muslim and non-Muslim peoples alike, with their multitude of ideas and languages. Yet, not all went harmoniously and disputes could resonate negatively far into the future, as in the case of Biruni’s debate with Ibn Sina. Whether on the institutional or individual level, or through affective or antagonistic relations, these dynamics of intellectual ferment reveal a social history of intellectual formation in Biruni’s age.

An approach to truth: aspects of his thought

This thematic discussion of Biruni’s thought examines his general approach as well as elements which distinguish him as a person and scholar. When treating such a polymath, it is often necessary for us to go beyond our common presuppositions to grasp the range of knowledge traversed by this great thinker, who felt as much at ease with spherical trigonometry and geology as with history, literature, and cultural study. Attention to languages was a recurring feature in Biruni’s writing, whether on Khwarazmian, Arabic, Persian, or Sanskrit. His engagement with the human sciences showed at an early period and persisted even when he explored mathematics and pharmacology. The stars and our planet, its formation and substances, remained a major focus for him, alongside his secondary concern for astrology and wonders.