Al-Biruni

Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni /ælbɪˈruːni/ , known as al-Bīrunī, was a <a href="/facts/Khwarazm/DIhw5ofr">Khwarazmian</a> <a href="/facts/Iranian_peoples/gnzfoI8h">Iranian</a> scholar and <a href="/facts/Polymath/eqIfjQRu">polymath</a> during the <a href="/facts/Islamic_Golden_Age/yAeG2rBA">Islamic Golden Age</a>. He has been called variously "Father of <a href="/facts/Comparative_religion/qSQ59Vqd">Comparative Religion</a>", "Father of modern <a href="/facts/Geodesy/EJH0Te0m">geodesy</a>", Founder of <a href="/facts/Indology/WJU9K3X6">Indology</a> and the first <a href="/facts/Anthropologist/CboLlQq5">anthropologist</a>.
Al-Biruni was well versed in <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">physics</a>, mathematics, <a href="/facts/Astronomy/0ArJVM1p">astronomy</a>, and <a href="/facts/Natural_science/8hg81Q2p">natural sciences</a>, and also distinguished himself as a historian, <a href="/facts/Chronologist/QnyvW82G">chronologist</a>, and <a href="/facts/Linguist/oQuamvf2">linguist</a>. He studied almost all the sciences of his day and was rewarded abundantly for his tireless research in many fields of knowledge. Royalty and other powerful elements in society funded al-Biruni's research and sought him out with specific projects in mind. Influential in his own right, al-Biruni was himself influenced by the scholars of other nations, such as the Greeks, from whom he took inspiration when he turned to the study of philosophy. A gifted linguist, he was conversant in <a href="/facts/Khwarezmian_language/MI1PSwNv">Khwarezmian</a>, <a href="/facts/Persian_language/jfUYbHbt">Persian</a>, Arabic, and <a href="/facts/Sanskrit/ychfjhlx">Sanskrit</a>, and also knew <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greek/LIK7NlUh">Greek</a>, <a href="/facts/Biblical_Hebrew/yCJ3bh30">Hebrew</a>, and <a href="/facts/Syriac_language/mLhEtdSW">Syriac</a>. He spent much of his life in <a href="/facts/Ghazni/6Wmw2DPd">Ghazni</a>, then capital of the <a href="/facts/Ghaznavids/SvV50a1J">Ghaznavids</a>, in modern-day central-eastern Afghanistan. In 1017, he travelled to the <a href="/facts/Indian_subcontinent/0XUWGXpx">Indian subcontinent</a> and wrote a treatise on Indian culture entitled Tārīkh al-Hind ("The History of India"), after exploring the <a href="/facts/Hindus/D7TFhcg1">Hindu</a> faith practiced in India. He was, for his time, an admirably impartial writer on the customs and creeds of various nations, his scholarly objectivity earning him the title al-Ustadh ("The Master") in recognition of his remarkable description of early 11th-century India.

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Al-Biruni