Al-Biruni
Khwarazmian polymath, pioneering in science, history, and comparative religion.
Chronology: 0973-09-04 – 1048-12-09
Origins & Early Life
Abu Reyhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (Persian: ابوریحان محمد بن احمد بیرونی, romanized: Abū-Reyhān Bīrūnī; Arabic: أبو الريحان محمد بن أحمد البيروني; c. 973 – c. 1050), known as Biruni (بیرونی), was a Khwarazmian Iranian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. Well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy and the natural sciences, he also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist, and has been described as the first anthropologist and a founding figure in comparative religion, geodesy and Indology.
Pivotal Works & Achievements
Born in Kath in Khwarazm, al-Biruni spent the first twenty-five years of his life there before moving, after the fall of the Afrighids in 995, between the courts of Bukhara, Tabaristan and Gurganj. Around 1000 he completed his first major work, al-Āthār al-bāqiya ʿan al-qurūn al-khāliya, on historical and scientific chronology. From 1017 he lived at Ghazni under Mahmud of Ghazni, serving as court astrologer and accompanying Mahmud's campaigns in the Indian subcontinent; the resulting Tārīkh al-Hind, finished around 1030, is the work on which his reputation as an Indologist chiefly rests. He died at Ghazni around 1050. He studied almost all the sciences of his day and...
Enduring Legacy & Impact
The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.
Source: Wikipedia