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Who was the first to make experiments
related to astronomy? Most people would
say Galileo, Ptolemy, or some scientist
from the Renaissance. The real answer is
Abu Raihan Mohammed Ibn Ahmad Al-Biruni.
Born about five centuries before the
Renaissance, Al Biruni proved to be one
of the most prominent scientists of all
times. Abu Rayhan Al Biruni was born in
Khwarazm, a region adjoining the Aral
Sea now known as Karakalpakstan. The two
major cities in this region were Kath
and Jurjaniyya. Al-Biruni was born near
Kath and the town where he was born is
today called Biruni after the great
scholar. He lived both in Kath and in
Jurjaniyya as he grew up and we know
that he began studies at a very early
age under the famous astronomer and
mathematician Abu Nasr Mansour.
Certainly by the age of seventeen al-Biruni
was engaged in serious scientific work
for it was in 990 that he computed the
latitude of Kath by observing the
maximum altitude of the sun.
Al Biruni learned Hindu philosophy,
mathematics, geography and religion from
the experts to whom he taught Greek and
Arabic science and philosophy. He wrote
about his travels through India in his
well-known book Kitab-al-Hind which
gives a graphic account of the
sub-continent.
At the age of 22, he wrote a number of
short works. One which has survived is
his Cartography which is a work on map
projections. As well as describing his
own projection of a hemisphere onto a
plane, Al Biruni showed that by the age
of 22 he was already extremely well read
for he had studied a wide selection of
map projections invented by others and
he discusses them in the treatise. The
comparatively quiet life that Al Biruni
led up to this point was to come to a
sudden end.
The end of the 10th century and
beginning of the 11th century was a
period of great unrest in the Islamic
world, with civil wars in the region in
which Al Biruni was living. Khwarazm was
at this time part of the Samanid Empire
which ruled from Bukhara. Other states
in the region were the Ziyarid state
with its capital at Gurgan on the
Caspian sea. Further west, the Buwayhid
dynasty ruled over the area between the
Caspian sea and the Persian Gulf, and
over Mesopotamia. Another kingdom which
was rapidly rising in influence was the
Ghaznavids whose capital was at Ghazna
in Afghanistan, a kingdom which was to
play a major role in Al Biruni's life.
The Banu Iraq were the rulers of the
Khwarazm region and Abu Nasr Mansur, Al
Biruni's teacher, was a prince of that
family. In 995 the rule by the Banu Iraq
was overthrown in a coup. Al Biruni fled
at the outbreak of the civil war but it
is less clear what happened to his
teacher Abu Nasr Mansur at this stage.
Describing these events later.
Exactly where Al Biruni went when he
fled from Khwarazm is unclear. He might
have gone to Rayy (near to where the
city of Tehran stands today) at this
time, but certainly he was there at some
time during the following few years. He
writes that he was without a patron when
in Rayy, and lived in poverty. al-Khujandi
was an astronomer who was working with a
very large instrument he had built on
the mountain above Rayy to observe
meridian transits of the sun near the
solstices. He made observations on 16
and 17 June 994 for the summer solstice
and 14 and 17 December 994 for the
winter solstice. From these values he
calculated the obliquity of the
ecliptic, and the latitude of Rayy but
neither are particularly accurate.
Other work which al-Biruni undertook as
a young man was more theoretical. Before
Al-Khujandi discussed these
observations, and his large sextant,
with al-Biruni who later reported on
them in his Tahdid where he claimed that
the aperture of the sextant settled by
about one span in the course of al-Khujandi's
observations due to the weight of the
instrument. Al-Biruni is almost
certainly correct in pinpointing the
cause of al-Khujandi's errors. Since al-Khujandi
died in 1000, we can be fairly certain
that al-Biruni spent part of the time
between 995 and 997 at Rayy. He must
also have spent part of this time in
Gilan, which is bordered by the Caspian
Sea on the north, for around this time
he dedicated a work to the ruler of
Gilan, ibn Rustam, who had connections
with the Ziyarid state.
Among Al Biruni's books, his as-Saydanah
fit-Tibb on pharmacy and materia medica
is the last. Of this crowning
achievement only a few copies have come
down to us from its first and only draft
autograph. Al Biruni died shortly
hereafter, at the age of 78, before
having the chance to revise it. However
the manual represents one of the finest
contributions to pharmaceutical science
during the Middle Ages, and a great
masterpiece of all times. Indeed it
stand as one of the most original texts
in Arabic on the subject in
authenticity.
More distinctly than is observed in al-Ghafiqi's
al-Jami, al-Biruni's manual comprises
two important, distinct and separate
sections. The first, and most
original, contains authentic definitions
of the apothecary arts as well as
pharmacology, therapeutics and related
fields of the healing arts, lexicology
and lexicography, toxicology, omissions
and substitutions of drugs, and their
synonyms. It also presents valuable
historical and biographical information
not found anywhere else in Arabic
literature. It is very probable that it
surpassed any other in any language up
to its time on this particular subject.
Also, this first section presents the
author's own motivations and objectives
in writing his book and what the reader
should expect from it. He further gives
a timely, sententious and shrewd defense
of the Arabic language as the lingua
franca of the contemporary sciences and
the arts during this period. Such
deliberate and useful discussions and
interpretations, the first of the kind
ever recorded in an Arabic
medico-pharmaceutical text, were almost
lacking in al-Ghafiqi's introductory
statements which centered on
self-defense. Significantly, this allows
al-Biruni the well-deserved title of
'Father of Arabic Pharmacy.'
The second section of as-Saydanah
is devoted to materia medica. In it Al
Biruni explains over seven hundred
simples of the three natural kingdoms
conveniently and scrupulously arranged
in alphabetical order. In several
entries the discussions lead us to
believe that the author observed the
natural product that he and his
collaborator, the physician-pharmacist
Sheikh Ahmad an-Nahsha'i, described :
The latter, we are told in al-Biruni's
words in the introduction, used to bring
several varieties of drugs from
herbalists and pharmacy shops at Ghaznah
for their firsthand examination and
study. Quite a few of these simples were
never mentioned before by the
Greco-Roman authors and their
commentators prior to the Arabian
period. Many of these, Al Biruni must
have observed during his repeated
travels (thirteen in all) in
Pakistan-India Subcontinent, as can be
easily detected from his writings.
Al Biruni wrote two hundred books and
made a few instruments for astronomy.
Although only one fifth of his works
have survived, we get a clear picture of
the great Muslim scientist. We see a man
who was not a great innovator of
original theories, mathematical or
otherwise, but rather a careful observer
who was a leading exponent of the
experimental method. He was a great
linguist who was able to read first hand
an amazing number of the treatises that
existed and he clearly saw the
development of science as part of a
historical process which he was always
careful to put in proper context. His
writings are therefore of great interest
to historians of science.
Al Biruni died in 1048 CE at the age of
75, after having spent 40 years in
gathering knowledge and making his own
contributions to its different branches.
He is one of the notable scientists in
the Islamic world, and indeed one of the
greatest of all times.
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