Abu-Rayhaan-e-Birooni
Abu-Rayhaan-e-Birooni
, the Iranian mathematician, astronomer, historian, and geographer lived in the late 10th,
and early 11th century. He spent his childhood in Kharazm, where he worked for a Greek
scientist gathering plant, seed, and fruit samples. This triggered his interest in
nature from early on. He learned astronomy and mathematics from Abu-Nasr-e-Araq, a famous
scientist of that era. He also learned about many sciences in his hometown of Karazm,
which was the center for science at that time. Avicenna, the great Iranian physician and
philosopher, lived in Kharazm contemporaneously. Abu-Rayhaan and Avicenna had some
conversations on natural sciences. These conversations demonstrate Birooni’s
observational and experimental methods in studying nature. He finished his book,
Asar-ol-Baaqeyyeh when he was living under the patronage of Qaboos-e-Voshmgeer at the age
of 28. He rejected the position of minister offered to him, and returned to Kharazm a few
years later.
When Mahmood-e-Qaznavi captured Kharazm, he
asked a number of scientists, including Birooni, to go with him to Qazneh. Birooni
accepted this offer and lived the rest of his life in Qazneh. He accompanies
Mahmood-e-Qaznavi in many of his forays to India. On these trips, he learned Sanskrit, the
old and holy Indian language. He then wrote his valuable book, Tahqeeq-Malel-Hend.
Old books refer to Mahmood-e-Qaznavi’s
dislike for Birooni’s curt honesty and shrewdness. After Mahmood’s death,
Birooni wrote Qanoon-e-Masoodi as a dedication to Mahmood’s son, Masood-e-Qaznavi.
In his book , Asar-ol-Baaqeyyeh, Birooni
studies the Hebrew, Greek, Persian, and Arabic calendars with scientific precision. In
addition, he studies some social and political events along with discussions about
civilizations and customs and cultures in various societies. He also argues about the
validity of a number of popular beliefs. To cite an example, on the belief that every year
on the 16th of the month of Dey all salt waters become unsalted, he writes: “This is
impossible. The properties of water depend solely on the land where it is running or
stored.” He then goes on to explain artesian wells, centuries before western
scientists produced the same explanation.
While he was in India, Birooni translated
several books on mathematics, medicine, and philosophy from Sanskrit into Arabic. He also
calculated the latitude and the longitude of some sites in India using geometry and
trigonometry.
Tahqeeq-Malel-Hend is
the most comprehensive book of its time, written on the history, philosophy, customs, and
social climate of India. To write it, Birooni had to learn Sanskrit, gather many books
from all over India, and try to find Indian scientists who were fearful of Mahmmod, for
interviews. Birooni writes: “I wrote this book without telling any lies about
Indians. I have mirrored their beliefs and tales. If Moslems do not like it, I would tell
them these are Indian beliefs. This is not a critique of the Indian way of thinking.
Rather, it is a reflection of what they believe, and the similarities between these
convictions and those of other nations.
In Qanoon-e-Masoodi, he studied many old ideas about astronomy. He concluded that the
revolution of the earth around the sun was completely plausible. Upon this postulate, he
computed the circumference of the earth’s great circle, and explained the phenomenon
of day-and-night. He was the first eastern scientist to talk about the revolution of the
earth around the sun.
His research on the properties of metals and precious stones including their densities is
most remarkable. He measured the density of 18 different substances to amazing accuracy.
His determination of the density of gold to be 19 is amazingly close to its real value of
19.3.
He wrote a book in
Persian, entitled Al-Tafheem. In this book he attempted to find Persian equivalents for
the terminology used in astronomy, and to explain difficult notions of that discipline to
other scientists.
Birooni was a master of literature and
literary criticism. He wrote critiques to some of Mohammad-Ebn-e-Zakaria-ye-Raazi’s
works. He wrote six novels which had Indo-Iranian origins. None of these stories are
available today, perhaps due to the fact that he did not take this hobby of his, story
writing, very seriously.
He died at the age of 77 in Qazneh.
Biruni's interest shifted
from his initial training as a mathematician towards chronicles and history, to
astronomy and geography, medicine, mineralogy and pharmacology. Scholars, both
East and West, recognize his translation of important Indian religious works as
his most important contribution.
In Kitab al-Hind, the first Arabic compendium on Hindu civilization he
mentions having translated from Sanskrit, the Sakaya, a book which
deals with the creation of things and their types, and the Patanjali
which deals with what happens to the soul after it leaves the body. The
Patanjali was found by French Orientalist L. Massignon early in this century in
Istanbul. He is reported to have translated Euclid's Elements and
Ptolemy's Almagest into Sanskrit.
Yaqut, in Mu'jam al-Alam, lists 180 works attributed to Biruni. Al-Biruni,
himself, in Fi-Fihrist Kutub Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi lists 114 of
his own works.
Most of his works were written in Arabic and a few in Persian, ``although his
mother tongue was neither." He had a particular love for Arabic.
The sciences of the world have been rendered to the language of the Arabs. They
were embellished. They penetrated the hearts. The beauty of the language
circulated in the veins and the arteries.
He was well versed in anti-Aristotelian philosophy and wrote a critique of
Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi. Al-Biruni condemned various aspects of Greek
philosophy in his series of Questions and Answers. He exchanged in this
series with the famous Ibn Sina (better known as Avicenna in the West), then, in
the words of Biruni, al-Fata al-Fadil (the young scholar), echoing a feeling of
mutual respect and friendship.
In al-Fihrist, which he wrote to a friend, he said, ``I have listed for
you the books of Abu Zakariya (al-Razi) which I saw or acquired. Had it not been
for my profound respect for you, I would not have done it. I am afraid such an
undertaking would bring upon me the hatred of his opponents as they might think
of me as one of his followers who approved his ideas." Nevertheless, he
spent forty years looking for the Book of Secrets of Mane in an attempt
to refute what he believed was an inaccurate claim made by Razi. When he finally
procured it from a soldier in Hamadan, he was " filled with joy, as a man
who found water in the hot desert."
In Kitab al-Jawahir (Book of the Pearls), he applies hydrostatic
principles to find the specific gravity (via a method of Archimedes) of 9
metals, based on the weight of gold, and 9 gems based on the weight of
"`oriental sapphire". For example, he gives the values of 19.05-19.26
for gold (actual 19.29), 8.72-8.83 for copper (actual 8.85), 12.74-13.59 for
mercury (actual 13.56) and 8.55-8.67 for brass (actual 8.40). The book is
considered the ``most complete medieval text on mineralogy."
In al-Qanun al-Mas'udi, he exposed the knowledge of the time pertaining
astronomy, laying down his propositions with rigorous mathematical proofs. He
laid down the geometric and algebraic notions needed for the study of celestial
bodies, their motions and distances.
Although faithful to a geocentric view of the world, with the earth as the
center of the universe, he was aware of the heliocentric view of the world. He
had to give up this latter, succumbing to lack of actual proof.
In his geographical book, Kitab Tahdid Nihayat al-Amakin (Determining
the Coordinates of the the Cities), he introduced the concept of descriptive
geography by laying down the composition of different regions; not only their
fauna and flora, but also in terms of the minerals their lands held. His map of
the world is amongst the oldest surviving maps of the world (cf. Figure 1. In
it, he argued, correctly, for a sedentary origin for the Indus Valley. ``The
Arab desert, on the other hand, must have been a sea which had receded, given
the stratified nature of its soil, found when one digs wells ... and the
fossiles found in it."
In al-Kitab fi al-Usturlab, al-Biruni described his own method for
determining the circumference of the earth (cf. Figure 2). In al-Qanun al-Masudi
he actually gave his his most successful measurement of it. Two attempts were
made based on his conception, one in Jurjan, and a second in India.
In mathematics, Biruni developed his own sine tables. He gave a general formula
which enables one to find the side of a regular polygon inscribed in a circle in
terms of the radius. This led him in the case of the 9-gon to the 3rd degree
equation. For this equation, he suggested three methods of solution. One
procedure he used is the method of successive approximation. For example, he
obtained a value of 0.68404032 for Sin (40 dg). For Pi, he got the approximate
value of 3.1417466. Schoy published in 1926, in the American Mathematical
Monthly, a note on Biruni's Method of Approximation of the chord dg 40). He
was reported to have invented a clock machine based on the Roman calendar for
the mosque of Ghazni, but the imam refused it as it was in the latter's view
based on a non-Islamic calendar.
Al-Biruni died in the year 443 H (1051) at the age of 78, one year after the
completion of his book on pharmacology, Kitab al-Saydalah. He never got
married, and passed his life as a bachelor. It is said that he never raised his
head from reading books and went out only twice a year on festival occasions, to
procure provisions for himself.
