Thinkers Timeline

Al-Biruni was a Central Asian polymath. The word 'polymath' means a person with deep knowledge in many fields. He worked as an astronomer, mathematician, geographer, historian, anthropologist, geologist, and physicist. He was one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic world. He wrote in Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit. He was born in 973 CE in Khwarezm, a region near the Aral Sea in what is now Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. He died around 1048 CE. He came from a family of modest means. He was orphaned young. He was lucky. A prince of the local royal family took him in and arranged for his education. He studied under leading scholars of his region. By his twenties he was already corresponding with other major scholars across the Muslim world. In 1017, his life changed dramatically. The Turkic ruler Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Khwarezm. Al-Biruni was taken east, to the Ghaznavid empire's capital in what is now Afghanistan. He was effectively a captive scholar. The Ghaznavids treated him reasonably well but kept him from going home. He spent the rest of his life in their service. The move had one extraordinary side effect. Mahmud's armies regularly raided into India. Al-Biruni travelled with them. He used the opportunity to study Indian language, religion, philosophy, and science directly. He learned Sanskrit. He read Indian astronomical and mathematical texts. He talked with Hindu scholars. He wrote a book called the India, one of the most careful studies of one civilisation by a thinker from another that has ever been written. He wrote about 150 books over his career. Around 25 survive. He wrote about astronomy, the calendar, mineralogy, pharmacy, mathematics, geography, and history. He died around age 75, still working.