A universal geniusin Central Asia

a thousand years ago

astronomer

historian

botanist

pharmacologistgeologist

poet

philosophermathematician

geographerhumanist

TREASURES

WORLD ART

ITALY

Bronze defiance in Venice

Dominating the great portal of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, these colossal gildedbronze horses have snorted defiance through nearly 24 centuries. Attributed to thefamous 4th century B.C. Greek sculptor Lysippus, they graced the Trajan Forum inRome until the Emperor Constantine moved them to Constantinople in the 4th centuryA.D. In 1204, the Doge Enrico Dándolo had them shipped to Venice, where they stoodover the portal of St. Mark's till 1797 when Napoleon Bonaparte took them to Paris, toadorn the triumphal arch of the Petit Carrousel. Finally, in 1815, they were returnedto St. Mark's. Today the preservation of Venice, threatened not only by the ravagesof time but also by flooding, pollution and industrialization, is the object of an inter¬national campaign launched by Unesco in 1966. In 1973 the Italian Parliament endorsedUnesco's initiative by voting 450 millions dollars for the protection of the city.

CourierJUNE 1974

27TH YEAR

PUBLISHED IN 15 LANGUAGES

English Arabic Hebrew

French Japanese Persian

Spanish Italian Dutch

Russian Hindi PortugueseGerman Tamil Turkish

Managing EditorsEnglish Edition :

French Edition :

Spanish Edition :

Russian Edition :

German Edition :

Arabic Edition :

Japanese Edition :

Italian Edition :

Hindi Edition :

Tamil Edition :

Hebrew Edition :

Persian Edition :

Dutch Edition :

Portuguese Edition :Turkish Edition :

Page

10

14

Published monthly by UNESCO

The United Nations

Educational, Scientific

and Cultural Organization

Sales and Distribution Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris

Annual subscription rate 24 French francs

The UNESCO COURIER is published monthly, except inAugust and September when it is bi-monthly (11 issues ayear). For list of distributors see inside back cover.Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted maybe reprinted providing the credit line reads "Reprinted fromthe UNESCO COURIER," plus date of issue, and threevoucher copies are sent to the editor. Signed articles re¬printed must bear author's name. Non-copyright photoswill be supplied on request Unsolicited manuscripts cannotbe returned unless accompanied by an international replycoupon covering postage. Signed articles express theopinions of the authors and do not necessarily representthe opinions of UNESCO or those of the editors of theUNESCO COURIER.

The Unesco Courier is produced in microform (micro¬film and/or microfiche) by : (1 ) University Microfilms(Xerox), Ann Arbor, Michigan 48100, U.S.A. ; (2) N.C.R.Microcard Edition, Indian Head, Inc., Ill West 40thStreet, New York, U.S.A.; (3) Bell and Howell C°.,Old Mansfield Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691, U.S.A.

The Unesco Courier is indexed monthly in theReaders' Guide to Periodical Literature, published byH. W. Wilson Co., New York, and in Current Con¬tents - Education, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

Editorial Office

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris - France

Editor-in-Chief

Sandy Koffler

Assistant Editor-in-Chief

René Caloz

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief

Olga Rodel

Editors

Ronald Fenton (Paris)Jane Albert Hesse (Paris)Francisco Fernández-Santos (Paris)Georgi Stetsenko (Paris)Werner Merkli (Berne)Abdel Moneim El Sawi (Cairo)Kazuo Akao (Tokyo)Maria Remiddi (Rome)Ramesh Bakshi (Delhi)N.D. Sundaravadivelu (Madras)Alexander Peli (Jerusalem)Fereydoun Ardalan (Teheran)Paul Morren (Antwerp)Benedicto Silva (Rio de Janeiro)Mefra Telci (Istanbul)

Assistant Editors

French Edition : Philippe OuannèsSpanish Edition : Jorge Enrique Adoum

Illustrations : Anne-Marie Maillard

Research : Christiane Boucher

Layout and Design : Robert Jacquemin

All correspondence should be addressed tothe Editor-in-Chief in Paris

16

19

27

28

30

32

37

38

AL-BIRUNI

A universal genius who lived in Central Asiaa thousand years ago

By Bobojan Gafurov

THE LONG ODYSSEY

In the footsteps of a Muslim scholar

By Jacques Boilot

THE NINE-DOMED MOSQUE OF BALKH

Photo report

A PIONEER OF SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION

By Mohammed Salim-Atchekzai

MINIATURE ANTHOLOGY OF AL-BIRUNI

Special eight-page supplement

"

AL-BIRUNI versus AVICENNA

IN THE BOUT OF THE CENTURY

Two youthful geniuses debate the nature of the universe

By Seyyed Hossein Nasr

AL-BIRUNI ON THE SCREEN

Photo report

LOST HORIZONS IN THE LAND OF POETRY

Vanished works of a scientist turned man of letters

By Zabihollah Safa

'FATHER' OF ARABIC PHARMACYIN MEDIEVAL ISLAM

By Hakim Mohammed Said

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

Photo report

FREE-WHEELING PHILOSOPHER

By Seyyed Hossein Nasr

TREASURES OF WORLD ART

Bronze defiance in Venice (Italy)

Al-Biruni as he may have looked in hisprime. An imaginary portrait to markthe thousandth anniversary of the birthof the great Islamic scholar in 973.

Photo © APN

Few periods in man's history can boast the existence of one of thoserare intellectual giants whose genius not only embraces the knowledgeof his time but reaches out to uncharted, unknown frontiers. Such a

man was al-Biruni, born a thousand years ago, who ranks among thegreatest scholars of the Islamic world: Astronomer, mathematician,physicist, geographer, historian, linguist, ethnologist, pharmacologistas well as poet, novelist and philosopher al-Biruni's contribution tohuman learning was unique. Despite the political upheavals whichinterrupted his work, his sheer output was prodigious. He had ascientific spirit in the full sense of the term and displayed a spirit ofunderstanding and respect for other cultures remarkable for his time.

His contribution was such that many scholars put him on a par withor even higher than the great Avicenna. Yet unlike Avicenna, al-Biruni

is virtually unknown except to the rare specialist. The Unesco Courierhopes that this special number will provide a small insight into theextraordinary genius of this universal scholar and man of science.

Abu al-Rayhan Mohammed ibn Ahmad

AL-BIRUNI

A universal geniuswho lived

in Central Asia

a thousand years ago

by Bobojan Gafurov

4BOBOJAN GAFUROV, of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, is director of theAcademy's Institute of Oriental Studies and chairman of the Unesco-sponsoredInternational Association for the Study of the Cultures of Central Asia (comprisingAfghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia! Pakistan and U.S.S.R.). Of Tajik nationality, heis the author of many works on Asian history and culture.

CUMHURtYETl ro

S 250KURUS

Turkey

LBU al-Rayhan Mohammedibn Ahmad al-Biruni, the great CentralAsian scholar, is one of thoseintellectual giants whose staturecontinues to grow as we become morefully acquainted with their legacy.

One hundred years ago, when al-Biruni's Chronology of Ancient Nationswas published in Russian, only onefacet of his many talents was apparent,that of an outstanding medieval his¬torian. But as more of his works were

discovered treatises on mathematics,geography and astronomy and themore deeply they were studied, thehigher al-Biruni stood out above themass of his contemporaries.

Al-Biruni was so far ahead of histime that his most brilliant discoveriesseemed incomprehensible to most ofthe scholars of his day. He was thefirst to arrive at an amazingly simpleformula for measuring the earth's

10 R. «n *m JbV

MILLENARY OF AL-BIRUNI

j? 973-1048 A.D. f* vfA-IVr

Öl II 1 ll¿l-JJ>jdldJj)4J^I

L-A-R

jblfcU «{¿fed

1870-1940 »u«-«11"*» ttíOAV«

U Afs 1973 irû> üú»l

<¡ ONE THOUSANDTH ANNNERSARY

Afghanistan

- ->-

10^¿c^1.

Al-Biruni is claimed as a

son of many countries, but

as a universal scholar and

scientist he belongs to all

nations and every age.

Here we show commemo¬

rative stamps issued in

1973, on the occasion of

the 1,000th anniversary of

al-Biruni's birth, in Afgha¬

nistan, Iran, Libya, Pakistan,

Syrian Arab Republic, Tur¬

key and USSR. Four coun¬

tries, Afghanistan, Iran,

Pakistan and USSR organi¬

zed symposia or congresses

on al-Biruni at the time.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS QtT ^feON MILLENARY OF AL-BIRUNI PAKISTAN

NOV. 26 -DEC. 12. 1973

J3ÈM8Pakistan

Syrian Arab Rep.

circumference. He thought It possiblethat the earth revolved around the sun.

He developed the idea that geologicaleras succeed one another in cycles."With the passing of time, the seabecomes dry land, and dry land thesea," he wrote, and on this brillianthypothesis he based his theory of theearth's geological history.

What enabled al-Biruni to move so

far ahead of his contemporaries and tocreate works that made his name

known in the East as a symbol oflearning of the 11th century?

Khwarizm, in Central Asia, whereal-Biruni was born and grew up, hadlong been famed for its advancedculture. Its cities had magnificentpalaces, mosques and madrasahs(religious colleges), and in this pros¬perous, ancient state the sciences wereesteemed and highly developed.

The 10th and 11th centuries saw

the decline of the Arab caliphate inBaghdad. New states arose on itsruins, and a pleiad of illustrious CentralAsian scholars appeared, includingAbu-Nasr al-Farabi and ibn-Sina (Avi¬cenna).

It was during this period that al-Biruni was born near Kath, the capitalof Khwarizm, on 4 September, in theyear 973. "In truth, I am not certainof my genealogy, for I do not reallyknow who my grandfather was. Andhow could I know who my grandfatherwas, when I do not even know whowas my father?" he wrote in a poemwhich appears in one of his treatises.

In his early youth, fortune broughthim in contact with an educated Greek

who was to become his first teacher.

At the Greek's request, the youngal-Biruni collected plants, seeds andfruit and this kindled his interest in thenatural sciences.

Al-Biruni's foster father was Abu-

Nasr Mansur ibn-Ali ibn Iraq, or simplyMansur, a member of the Khwarizmianroyal family and a distinguished math¬ematician and astronomer. He intro¬

duced al-Biruni to Euclidean geometryand Ptolemaean astronomy, whichequipped the young scholar to studyastronomy.

"Most of my days were blessed bygifts and privileges which were in¬creasingly bestowed on me," wroteal-Biruni, describing this period of hislife. "The Iraq family nourished mewith their milk and their Mansur took

it upon himself to rear me."

Al-Biruni studied the stars and

minerals, probed the secrets of theheavens and the earth and read

thousands of books in order to fathom

the meaning of history. He constructeda globe of the earth the first inCentral Asia and was equally gifted

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

5

6

AL-BIRUNI (Continued)

as a poet. He lived through thefeverish final years of the powerfulSamanid dynasty and witnessed therise and fall of two early feudalempires the Karakhanid and theGhaznavid.

Social conflicts, feudal wars andbarbarian invasions left their imprinton his manuscripts, since science doesnot exist in a vacuum, least of all the

science of history. It might well havebeen the violent social upheavals inKhwarizm that suggested the theme ofhis first major work, in which heturned to the past for an understandingof how society was evolving.

Al-Biruni completed his Chronologyof Ancient Nations at the age of 27,just before the 11th century was born."My aim in this book," he explained,"was to establish as accurately as poss¬ible the time span of various eras."His study begins at the dawn of thehuman race, moves on to the period

of the great flood, and covers every

thing then known about the times ofNebuchadnezzar and Alexander the

Great.

The book explains various calendarsystems such as the Arabian, Greekand Persian. The history of rulers,heroes and political events is inter¬woven with the history of culture,customs and morals. The Chronologyof Ancient Nations should not be

considered as a purely historical work,but as a partly historical and partlyethnographic study that retains its fullsignificance to this day.

Soviet scholars of the 1930s referred

to the Chronology again and again intheir research on ancient Central Asia.

Only in al-Biruni's work could they findan account of the Soghdian calendar,essential to their study of early8th century Soghdian documents; onlyhere could they find information aboutpre-Muslim Khwarizm, which archae¬

ologists were just beginning to study.

Al-Biruni was no ivory tower scholar.

He met and came to know people inmany different walks of life andmaintained close contacts with his

fellow scholars. We know from letters

written by al-Biruni in Khwarizm, in theyear 997, to the 17 year-old Avicennain Bokhara, that these young scholarsdiscussed Aristotle's Physics and Onthe Heavens, as well as the structure

of the universe, the physical laws

covering a free-falling object and in¬divisible particles (atoms). Al-Birunidevoted his work, Questions and Ans¬

wers to these exchanges (see articlepage 27).

Al-Biruni's letters reveal a deeprespect for the ancient Greek philos¬

ophers and show him to be already amature man of science, despite his

youth. In the year 1010, he was ad¬mitted to the Academy of al-Mamun,which embraced a group of famousscholars, including the philosopher andnatural scientist Avicenna, the historian

and philosopher ¡bn-Maskawayh andthe mathematician abu-Nasr Arrah.

Photos B. Fabritsky and I. Shmeliov © Aurora Art Publishers, APN, Leningrad

Al-Biruni was born near the town of Kath, north-east of the ancient city of Khiva. Kath has vanished from themap, but Khiva (today in Uzbekistan) still boasts palaces, religious colleges, mosques and burial monumentsthat testify to the talent of its medieval architects and craftsmen. Shown here are two buildings in Khivatoday: the Baths of Anusha-khan (opposite) and the mausoleum of Pahlawan Mahmud (above) whose greatdome covered with blue tiles dominates the city.

Whereas European natural sciencewas in a state of stagnation at thattime, scholars in Khwarizm were

vigorously advancing along the pathtraced by scientists of antiquity.Khwarizm's economic growth duringthe early feudal period had set thestage for a golden age of science inthe early 11th century.

Commerce with northern peoplesthe Khazars and Bulgars, the ancientRussians, and the tribes of the Uralsand Western Siberia also influenced

scientific advancement. Learningflourished in this fertile soil, with itstraditions of a thousand year-oldindependent culture, combining the"wisdom of neighbouring India with theperfect lucidity of far-off Hellas."

Al-Biruni's frequent references toGreek philosophy and scientific thoughtdemonstrate the encyclopedic scope ofhis interests. He was familiar with

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and hadstudied Plato's treatises, Laws and

Phaedo. He was well acquainted with

the works of Aristotle, Archimedes and

Democritus, and extolled what he con¬

sidered the best of Greek philosophy.

The 11th century was a time of greatturmoil. The armed hosts of Mahmud

of Ghazna overran Khwarizm, in 1017,taking thousands of prisoners, in¬cluding al-Biruni. The decade whichfollowed was to be the most difficult

period in the scholar's life, but at the

same time his most productive. Hestudied astronomy, collected materialsfor a mathematics treatise, sought tocomprehend the influence of the moonon the tides, and conceived his majorwork on India, which represents thezenith of his scientific thinking.

Arabic and Persian literature priorto al-Biruni's time had depicted Indiaas a land of wonders. The Indians

were knowledgeable in astronomy andarithmetic; they were said to haveinvented chess, which in al-Biruni's

time was already considered an

intellectual game; they were ac¬complished sculptors and poets; theirdoctors were highly reputed, and itwas even affirmed that the science of

philosophy had originated In India.In Ghazna, al-Biruni became ac¬

quainted with Indian scholars who, likehim, were exiled from their homeland.

His meetings and conversations withthem sparked his Interest in theirremarkable country. For a period of12 years, up to the year 1030, al-Biruniwas totally absorbed in India.

Many people before al-Biruni hadtravelled to India, especially to Sindand its southern coast, and some

books that could serve historians as

a guide to studying the country hadbeen written. Al-Biruni's monumental

work on India, however, clearlydemonstrated a scientific, that is, ob¬jective, approach to the subject. Atthe age of 45, he began learning Sans¬krit. He visited India several times,

walked on its soil, breathed its air,compared and marvelled.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

7

AL-BIRUNI (Continued)

A true scientist, al-Biruni strove to

share knowledge as well as to obtainit. He translated Euclid's Elements

and his own treatise on astronomy into

Sanskrit. He also began a translationof the Panchatantra into Arabic, as he

considered the existing translation ofthis immortal literary classic to be in¬adequate.

Al-Biruni's India became the major

source for studying 11th century India.It covered the caste system, philos¬ophy, the exact sciences, religion, laws,customs, superstitions, legends, thesystem of weights and measures, thewritten language and geography. Inwriting it, al-Biruni quoted 24 works by

Below, map showing im¬portant cities and areas ofcentral Asia during thelifetime of al-Biruni. Right,the same region today,e ifrb racing Uzbekistan,Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistanand India.

14 Greek writers and used 40 Sanskrit

sources. He was an objective re¬searcher, free of racial bias, with adeep respect for the advanced cultureof another people.

During the reign of Mas'ud, whosucceeded his father, Mahmud, as

Ghaznavid ruler, al-Biruni's situation

improved. The new king was anenlightened man who encouraged thesciences. Al-Biruni dedicated his

major work on astronomy, The Mas'udicCanon, to him. In the opinion of al-Biruni's contemporaries and suc¬cessors, he surpassed his ancientmentor, Ptolemy, in this work.

When the grateful Mas'ud sent the

^ firA Sea Ï

i»^ Tashkent fCf. c «.- " j-J CHINA

1 Carmian Sea ^y1 jy Samarkand V«

F j-J-Kabul f^T^ykFGHANISTAjr IslarrWtf *"-Y'

IRAN J f ) JNEPAC""!f

vl V" " PAKISTAN/ Delhi 4*i

V» V «r KaracVir 1 - 1 i V ~~\ INDIA

Oman Sea <^~ M A>The boundaries on this map do not imply official endorsementor acceptance by Unesco or the United Nations.

scholar an elephant loaded with puresilver, al-Biruni replied: "This giftwould seduce me from science. Wise

men know that silver is soon spent butscience lives on. I would never

exchange the perennial wealth ofscientific knowledge for the short-livedtawdry glitter of silver."

Al-Biruni's main interests were math¬

ematics, astronomy, geography, physicsand geodesy but in his last work, thePharmacology, he classified the physi¬cal features of plants, animals andminerals, and compiled an alphabeticallist of medicinal herbs and their uses.

Besides Arabic names, al-Biruni

listed about 900 Persian, 700 Greek,

400 Syrian and 350 Indian names inthe Pharmacology. He referred toAristotle's works on biology, and alsoto the writings of Dioscorides andGalen, physicians and pharmacologistsof the 1st and 2nd centuries. Un¬

fortunately, the Pharmacology was notcompleted, but even in the form it hascome down to us its values is self-

evident.

Al-Biruni's contemporaries spoke ofhim thus: "Except for two festivedays each year, his hand never stoppedwriting, his eyes observing, his mindcontemplating." When he died in 1048,at the age of 75, more than 150 workshad flowed from his pen. Theyinclude 70 on astronomy, 20 on math¬ematics and 18 on literature, includingtranslations, and bibliographies. Hewas famed as a cartographer, meteor¬ologist, physicist, philosopher, historianand ethnographer.

Only 27 of his works have comedown to us. Whether the rest were

destroyed or simply have not beenfound is not known. Abu'l Faraj, theSyrian historian and physician, wroteof al-Biruni, the man he regarded ashis mentor: "His works gre numerous,exhaustive and completely reliable.There was no one, neither among hiscolleagues, nor to this day, so wellversed in astronomy, from its mainprinciples down to the smallestdetails."

Al-Biruni had a vast impact onscience in the East. Many countriesclaim him as their own, but this son

of Khwarizm, one of Central Asia'smost brilliant civilizations, belongs toall nations and to all time.

Bobojan Gafurov

Chess was first played inAsia and many authoritiesagree that it originated inIndia. In al-Biruni's day itwas already a popular gamein Central Asia, and he mayhimself have handled pieceslike the ones shown here of

carved ivory (4 cm. high),dating from the time when helived. They were unearthednear the village of Kurban-Sheid, in Tajikstan, in a regiononce part of the GhaznavidEmpire, in which al-Birunilived for many years.- Above,pawns with a knight In fore¬ground (rider's body andhorse's head are missing).Left, knight and rook (?)flanked by pawns.

9

pfe-a¿& ^^ô^fà^^^^i

Photo Bibllothtqu« Natloiwl*. Pari*

THE LONG

ODYSSEYby Jacques Boilot

In the footsteps of a Muslim scholar

through a world in ferment

10

FATHER JACQUES BOILOT, distinguishedFrench orientalist, has devoted many yearsto the study of al-Biruni. His 'L'suvred'al-Biruni : Essai Bibliographique" is regardedas the standard bibliographical work on thesubject. He is a member of the DominicanInstitute of Oriental Studies (formerly theFrench Institute of Oriental Archaeology) inCairo. His article is abridged from a studyon al-Biruni published in the DominicanInstitute's review, "Mélanges" (No 11,1972).

Photos Edinburgh University library, U.K.

Miniatures on these pages are from two different manuscripts ofal-Biruni's Chronology of Ancient Nations. Opposite, copied andillustrated in Cairo in the 17th century, a miniature portraying theSassanian king Feroz addressing his court (1). The four miniaturesabove are from a manuscript probably made at Tabriz, Iran, dated

1307. They show the celebration of the autumnal equinox by theHindus (5); a barbecue with roast fowl and game (4); a discussionbetween a sage and a peasant (2); and the birth of Caesar (3),an early pictorial representations of the surgical operation whichbears his name. Al-Biruni himself used the term "Caesarian".

kL-BIRUNI is one of the

greatest scholars of medieval Islamand probably the most original andprofound of all. His Eastern contem¬poraries called him al-Ostadh (TheMaster).

How did his fame spread to the Westin the Middle Ages? 'His major workswere apparently not translated intoLatin, with the possible exception of afew peripheral chapters dealing withnatural magic, judicial astrology, talis-manic art . . . The extraordinary featuresof his life as recounted by his Easternbiographers perhaps added to hisreputation. Early French texts thatspeak of a "Maître Aliboron" arealmost certainly alluding to "Masteral-Biruni", scientist, doctor and man ofdeep wisdom.

While al-Biruni's work is of greatvalue in itself and deserves serious

study by historians of science, religionand philosophy, it is the Master'smental outlook and the nature of hisintellectual interests that scholars

today find stimulating.

Fifteen years ago we wrote: "Appar¬ently not much given to making

generalized syntheses by systemizeddeduction, or metaphysical speculationin the strict sense of the term, butconstantly on the look-out for positivefacts carefully and critically observed,trained to think mathematically, In¬terested in everything concretelyrelated to human life, he appears atthe beginning of the eleventh centurylike a champion of the scientific spiritas it is understood today.

"He showed great religious toleranceand doctrinal objectivity. Above all,he wanted to learn and understand.

He was relatively unprejudiced butprepared to take a courageous standin defence of truth. He was one of

the first Muslims to study the phil¬osophy and science of India sympath¬etically, and in exchange he taughtthose of Greece."

So it Is al-Biruni the man we wish to

discover, by piecing together suchfacts as will help us to place him inhis setting and his time.

This puts us in the latter part of thetenth century In Khwarizm, a centralAsian country situated south of the

Aral Sea, along the Amu-Dar'ya river,the Oxus of the ancients (1).

The sultanate of Khwarizm had en¬

joyed relative independence throughoutits history but successive wars andchanges in the course of the Amu-Dar'ya river brought about the de¬struction of one medieval city afteranother. As a result, It Is difficult todetermine the exact site of Kath, thecity where al-Biruni was born in973 A.D., beyond the fact that it wasprobably situated on the right bankof the Amu-Dar'ya river north-east ofthe modern town of Khiva.

The second largest city in Khwarizmwas Jurjaniyya on the opposite bankand to the north of Khiva. Today itis known as Urgench. On the rightbank across from Urgench, a new townhas risen not very far perhaps fromancient Kath, and its name, "Biruni",commemorates the scientist's birth¬

place.

(1) Now part of the Soviet SocialistRepublic of Uzbekistan, this region is in¬habited by Turkmenlan and Mongolianpeoples, the Karakalpaks, whose lands formthe Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Republic.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

11

12

THE LONG ODYSSEY (Continued)

Al-Biruni very early began scientificstudies and at the age of 17 he useda ring graduated in halves of a degreeto observe the height of the sun atthe Kath meridian and thus calculatethe latitude of the city. Four yearslater he made plans for a series ofobservations and measurements, andhad prepared an astronomical ring15 cubits (8 metres) in diameter alongwith other equipment.

At this time, civil war broke out inKhwarizm and al-Biruni, who wasnow 22, went into hiding and soon hadto flee the country.

In order to understand al-Biruni's

long career from then on, we must takeinto account the political situation inthe countries where he was to live. Inaddition to what is now Uzbekistan,

they comprised the northern part ofpresent-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistanand northern India. Al-Biruni in the

course of his life was directly involvedwith six princely dynasties.

Who was the prince that al-Birunifled to for protection in 9957 We donot know with certainty. It may havebeen then that he went to the town of

Ray, near present-day Teheran. In hisChronology of Ancient Nations hequotes a poem on the tribulations ofpoverty, and recounts that when hewas living in Ray without royalpatronage and destitute, a localastrologer scoffed at his views onsome technical matter simply becausehe was poor. Later, when his situationimproved, the same man becamefriendly.

At that time, the flourishing Bowayhiddynasty, which had originated in themountains south of the Caspian Sea,extended its domain south towards the

Persian Gulf and west to Mesopotamia.

At the request of the Bowayhidprince, Fakhr al-Dawla, the astronomeral-Khojandi had built a large muralsextant on a mountain above the town

of Ray. He used this "Fakhri Sextant"so named after the prince to

observe the sun's transits throughoutthe year 994.

Al-Biruni wrote a treatise describingthis sextant and giving a detailedaccount of the observations made,

based on information given to him byal-Khojandi in person. As the astron¬omer died about the year 1000, hisscientific discussions with the youngal-Biruni in Ray, must have dated fromshortly after the observations carriedout in 994.

There is reason to believe that al-

Biruni was also in the province ofGilan, along the south-west corner ofthe Caspian Sea about this time. One ofhis books Is dedicated to the Ispahbad("ruler" or "commander") of Jilan. Inthe Chronology of Ancient Nationswhich was finished by the year 1000,he speaks of having been in thepresence of the Ispahbad of Jilanperhaps the same official who pro¬tected Firdausi, the epic poet of Persia,from the wrath of Sultan Mahmud.

In any event, al-Biruni was certainlyback in Kath by 997. On 24 May inthat year, he observed an eclipse ofthe moon in Kath, after arranging tohave the great Muslim mathematician,Abu' l-Wafa, observe the samephenomenon in Baghdad. The timedifference between the respectiveobservations enabled the two scientists

to calculate the difference in longitudebetween the two points.

HE short reign of the Sa-manid Mansur II began the same year,997, and it was also about that timethat al-Biruni visited his court at the.

capital city of Bokhara. The Samaniddynasty, a royal house of Zoroastrianorigin, but early converted to Islam,ruled an area comprising all of modernAfghanistan, Transoxiana and Iran.

Meanwhile, 0aDUS, the Ziyarid rulerof Gurgan, a city at the south-eastcorner of the Caspian Sea, had beendriven from his lands, and was tryingto obtain support from Bokhara in aneffort to return to power. He suc

ceeded in reinstating himself in Gurganand al-Biruni followed him there.

The Chronology, al-Biruni's firstmajor work, seems to have beenwritten at the Gurgan court. Thisbook, which treats of calendars anderas, and fundamental problems inmathematics, astronomy, meteorology,was dedicated to 0aDUS about the year390 of the Islamic calendar (1000 A.D.).In it al-Biruni refers to seven other

books that he had already completed,dealing with decimal numbers, theastrolabe, astronomical observations,astrology and history.

During this period al-Biruni wascarrying on an acrimonious correspon¬dence with a young prodigy, thebrilliant philosopher and physician ofBokhara, Ibn Sina, known in the Latincountries as Avicenna, who was sevenyears his junior (see article page 27).

Among the subjects on which theyexchanged views were the nature andtransmission of heat and light. Al-Biruni was not yet 30 years old at thetime and Avicenna was in his earlytwenties.

In his book on geodesy, after de¬scribing the measurement of a degreealong a terrestrial meridian, made atthe direction of the Caliph Ma'mun, al-Biruni describes his own failure to

repeat the operation. A suitable tractof land had been chosen between Gur¬

gan and the land of the Oghuz Turks(on the deserts east of the Caspian)but the patron, presumably Oabus, lostinterest.

THE TOWER OF QABUS

Al-Biruni lived at a time of great ferment in learning andthe arts. About 1 000 A.D., he was living at Gurgan, innorth-east Iran, at the court of Qabus, to whom he dedicatedhis first known major work, the Chronology of AncientNations. Left, the famous tower of Qabus. It was longbelieved to be the ruler's tomb, but recent investigationhas revealed no trace of a burial chamber. Al-Biruni mayhave watched the tower being built, since elegantly carvedArabic inscriptions at its summit and base record thatQabus ordered its construction in 1006 A.D. when al-Biruni

was 33 years old. The region had been reputed since the9th century for its pottery. Below, platter and bowl shapedby Samanid potters who worked in Transoxiana and inKhorassan, countries in which al-Biruni sojourned for severalyears. Kufic Arabic inscriptions adorn platter (left); glazedbowl (right) bears a stylized bird motif.

Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art,New York, U.S.A.

Photo © Freer Gallery of Art,Washington, U.S.A.

The end of al-Biruni's stay at theZiyarid court can be precisely estab¬lished, for in 1003 he observed twolunar eclipses from Gurgan, one on19 February and the other on 14 Au¬gust. The following year he observeda third lunar eclipse, but this timefrom Jurjaniyya, on 4 June. Thus inthe interim, he had returned to hishomeland, high in favour with thereigning Khwarizmshah.

Thanks to the Khwarizmshah's liber¬

ality, al-Biruni was able to constructin Jurjaniyya an astronomical instru¬ment which in gratitude he called the"Shah's Circle". In all probability itwas a large ring fixed on the plane ofthe meridian.

Al-Biruni speaks in several placesin the Tahdid, his book on geodesy,and in his Canon on astronomy, of15 observations of the sun's transit

over the meridian in Jurjaniyya, thefirst one at the summer solstice on

7 June 1016, and the last one on7 December of the same year. It wasprobably during this period of pros¬perity and royal favour that he had ahemisphere ten cubits (5.4 metres) indiameter built to help solve geodesicproblems graphically.

Meantime the political atmospherein the sultanate of Khwarizm was

becoming more and more tense. In theTahdid al-Biruni writes: "I had enjoyedonly a few years of peace when theLord of Time (God) allowed me toreturn to my own country; but thereI was forced to take part in public

affairs, which caused fools to envy meand wise men to pity me."

Ma'mun, the Khwarizmshah, confidedseveral difficult political missions toal-Biruni, who carried them out skil¬fully "with tongue of silver and ofgold". But Ma'mun was assassinatedby some of his troops in revolt andthis gave the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmudan opportunity to march againstKhwarizm with a large army. Fromits base In east-central Afghanistan thekingdom of the Ghaznavids was swiftlyexpanding. By 1020, Sultan Mahmudhad carved out a realm extending athousand miles north and south and

twice as far east and west.

»L-BIRUNI was among thosedeported by the conqueror to Ghaznain Sijistan (Afghanistan), partly nodoubt to enhance the sultan's court

with his presence, but also In order toget rid of an active supporter of theKhwarizmian pretenders. He was then44 years old.

The following year we find him ina village south of Kabul, downcast andlivinq in misery, but working hard onthe Tahdid. On 14 October 1018 he

wanted to measure the height of thesun but had no instrument to hand.

So he was obliged to draw a calibratedarc on the back of a reckoning boardand use it.with the aid of a plumb line,as a makeshift quadrant

On the basis of the measurementsmade with this crude device he calcu¬

lated the latitude of the locality. On8 April, 1019, he observed an eclipseof the sun at Lamghan, a town to thenorth-east of Kabul.

Al-Biruni's relations with Sultan

Mahmud were never cordial. It is

evident, none the less, that he wasgiven official support for his work. Inhis Canon he relates that he determin¬

ed the latitude of Ghazna by a seriesof observations made between 1018

and 1020 with an instrument which he

calls the "Yamini Ring". Yamin al-Dawla (Right Hand of the State) wasone of the titles conferred on Mahmud

by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, andthe monumental instrument was named,according to custom, after the royalpatron.

It is also evident that al-Biruni's

interests in Sanscrit and the civilization

of India were due to his forced resi¬

dence in an empire that now extendedwell into the Indian subcontinent. In

1021 the conquering sultan subjugatedthe Ganges Valley almost as far asBenares, and in 1026, by a daring raidsouth starting from Ghazna, he reachedthe Indian Ocean.

Al-Biruni took advantage of theseevents to visit various parts of Indiaand stayed there more or less volun¬tarily. We know that he journeyed tothe Punjab and Kashmir regions,though no dates can be given for hisvisits. He determined the latitudes of

a number of towns, and reports that

CONTINUED PAGE 16

13

I

' <3XHBB

'***ito$ tt 4j

ii' i Vi a

Ml i; i i i .

Vi1,» .».<*'

II,

I liK\J.

'.. ' .1

THE NINE-DOMED

MOSQUE

OF BALKH

J*»-

mif

y*

mf*f%

IF*

r

j fi I

r ^,.- i// ^ r*

£@

^.feriJ-Oßfc

ro?A

í>?Ji

£&f&Mm

m-. %

m i JmâMà

'l*

:AWÇ>^ ._./&:

fté!«."'

If .t'-ifc. *"

I I I I I.I I I Il.l II I .Ill I I

I1.' ' . i',1 I I 1,1,1

I I I J I,I I I f

: I > III'il I .

i-,

fc'S-* .

v,;,-..

-M A ;a

y ¡

;-Vrr r

ir

-

*i

Seven years ago the existence of the mosque of Nouh-Goumbedwith its nine domes, one of the early examples of Islamic archi¬tecture in Central Asia, was unknown to modern scholars. Itsimposing ruins, hidden away in the remoteness of north-westAfghanistan on the site of the ancient city of Balkh, were studiedand described by archeologists only in 1967. In this regional-Biruni set the scene of one of his romances, The TwoIdols of Bamian (see page 30). Up to the 7th century, Balkhwas an important seat of Buddhist learning. After its conquestby the Arabs in 663, its fame as an intellectual and artistic centrespread even wider and its splendours were recounted by Araband Chinese travellers and historians. The nine domes of this

almost square mosque were once supported on pointed arches

resting on six central columns. The domes have fallen in, but evenin its present state the mosque gives an impression of beautyand strength. This is in part due to the size of the six columns1.56 metres in diameter (above) and to the manner in which thebaked bricks are separated by small decorated interstices 4 to5 cm. wide. The exterior (above left) is ravaged by time, butthe interior decoration is well preserved (see ornamental detailbelow left). The floral and geometrical motifs are found on thestucco carvings which cover the entire surface above the columns

in an infinite profusion of designs, none of which is repeated,except on the capitals. The decorative features and form ofconstruction enabled archaeologists to place the mosque in the9th century and as "an architectural achievement without precedent".

15

THE LONG ODYSSEY (Continued from page 13)

16

while he was living at Fort Nandana,he used a nearby mountain to calculatethe diameter of the earth. Nandana

had been taken by Mahmud in 1014.It controlled the route by which he, theMoghuls after him, and Alexander theGreat long before penetrated the IndusValley.

Al-Biruni spent a long time in Ghaznaitself and made many astronomicalobservations there, including transitsof the sun across the meridian at the

time of the summer solstice in 1019,

an eclipse of the moon on 16 Septem¬ber 1019, and equinoxes and solsticesup to the winter solstice in 1021. Itwas then that he completed his treatiseShadows.

In 1024, the ruler of the Turks alongthe Volga sent an embassy to Ghazna.The Turks had trade relations with the

inhabitants of the polar regions, andal-Biruni was able to add to his know¬

ledge of those countries by question¬ing the envoys. One of them statedin the sultan's presence that some¬times in the far north the sun did not

set for days. Mahmud at first con¬sidered this as heresy and was enrag¬ed, but al-Biruni convinced him thatIt was perfectly plausible.

In 1027, the year that the treatiseChords was finished, a Chinese and

Uighur Turkish legation came toGhazna. From this mission, al-Biruniobtained geographical informationabout the Far East which he later

included In his Canon.

Sultan Mahmud died in 1030, andsoon afterwards al-Biruni completedhis encyclopaedic book, India, but hedid not dedicate it to any particularpatron. Within the year (1030) thesultan's eldest son, Mas'ud succeededto the crown and then the situation of

his most famous scientist changedcompletely.

Al-Biruni put the final touches to histhird major work, the Canon of Astro¬nomy, and dedicated it to the newsovereign in florid terms.

In this book he takes issue with

Ptolemy's system on several points.He holds, for example, that the sun'sapogee is not fixed, and while heaccepts the geocentric theory, heshows that the astronomical facts can

also be explained by assuming that theearth revolves round the sun.

According to one chronicler, Mas'udoffered the Master an elephant-load ofsilver coins for this work, but al-Birunideclined the gift. Nevertheless hewas provided with the means to con¬tinue his scientific and literary studiesas long as he lived.

It may have been because of thischange of regime that he was able tore-visit his native country. He madeat least one trip back, for in hisBibliography he writes that for overforty years he had sought a certainManichaean work, a copy of which hefinally procured in Khwarizm.

Al-Biruni recounts that after the ageof 50 he suffered from a number of

serious ailments. In his distress, he-

questioned several astrologers about;how much time he had left to live.;Their replies were at total variancewith one another and some were

obviously absurd. In point of fact,,towards the end of his 61st year(possibly his 61st lunar year) hishealth began to improve.

One night he dreamt that lie wasobserving the new moon and when itscrescent disappeared he heard a voicepredicting that he would be able togaze upon it 170 times more. As Itturned out, he lived longer than170 more lunations (14 lunar years).

It was during the reign of Mawdud,son of Sultan Mas'ud, (1040-1048) thatal-Biruni wrote Gems, his book onprecious and semi-precious stonesand on metals. Following this period,even though his sight and hearing werefailing, as he himself tells us in hislast book, he carried on his researchassiduously with the aid of a Greekassistant.

His final work was the Pharmacologywhich ¡s a tribute to his prodigiouserudition. Al-Biruni tells us that he

was over eighty years old (lunaryears?) when he was still working onthis compilation, which brings us downto the year 1050 or later. The dateof his death, as given by Ghadanfar.

December 1048 Is therefore

inexact. Ultimately, he survived histhird Ghaznavid patron and livedlonger than the time predicted in hisdream.

Al-Biruni was Persian by birth. Hewas brought up In the Khwarizm dialectand later used Neo-Persian as his

spoken tongue, but out of choice hepreferred the Arabic language as aninstrument of thought and a means ofexpression in his intellectual life, bothfor his scientific treatises and his

purely literary works.

Thus his writings constitute a monu¬ment in the history of ideas and doc¬trines within the Arab world beforeforming part of the general history ofhuman thought, as a contribution fromthe Arabic-speaking world where theycame into being and first acquired theirfame.

In point of fact, al-Biruni, personallyand well ahead of his time, was a

promoter of mutual understanding andfruitful cultural exchange between theEast and the West though he maynot have thought of himself as suchthrough the active mediation of theArabic language and the profoundlyhumanistic values Inherent in it.

By virtue of his scientific method,which makes him a model for the

Eastern world even today and ensureshim the gratitude of Western science,he was a forerunner; and in his apti¬tude for inter-cultural understanding,he formed a connecting link betweenEast and West, just as his work is amanifestation of their underlying unityand fraternity.

Jacques Boilot

pioneer

scientific

by MohammedSalim-Atchekzai

MOHAMMED SALIM-ATCHEKZAI, of Afgha¬nistan, Is professor of Afghan language andliterature at the New Sorbonne University,Paris. Mr. Salim-Atchekzal has made a

special study of Afghan civilization andculture.

1. The earth and

the heavens

measured

with amazingprecision

2. Al-Biruni's book

on India :

an unprecedentedeffort

to understand

a peopleand their culture

I^Uji.

*' ' \1 « I

Photo British Museum, London

This diagram, reproduced from one of al-Biruni's treatises on astronomy,illustrates the different phases of the moon. The sun is represented by theblack disc at the top.

»FTER the dismemberment

of the Empire of Charlemagne, theChristian West was at a low ebb. The

tenth century was a sombre periodwhen conditions favoured neither the

growth of great political empire-buildingmovements nor the dissemination of

philosophical ideas.

In the Muslim East, however, thetenth century was a time of brilliantintellectual progress. The empires ofthe East, linked by a vigorous faith,attracted to themselves a great numberof scholars who made a unique contri¬bution to the cultural heritage ofmankind.

In the empire of the Samanids (819-1005), with its capital in Bokhara, thetalents of poets such as Rudaki andDaqiqi and of scholars such as Rhazesand Avicenna, flourished, while Ghazna,the capital of the empire of the Ghaz-navids (977-1186), which stretchedfrom western India as far as Khwarizm,was the home of many poets andscholars such as 'Unsuri and Firdausi,

the author of the Book of Kings, epicmasterpiece of Persian literature.

Al-Biruni was one of the manyscholars and philosophers who weredrawn to the court of Sultan Mahmud

(998-1030) in Ghazna, where he wasemployed as the court astronomer.This mixture of astrology and astron¬omy was not, however, enough tosatisfy the thirst for knowledge of aman with such an enquiring mind.

Al-Biruni's works, both before andafter his arrival In Ghazna, show himto have been a man of many and variedinterests. He carried out research in

almost all the subjects known at thattime. Among the pure sciences,astronomy was naturally the pivotalpoint around which all his otherinterests revolved.

The extent of his knowledge, particu¬larly in astronomy, may be judged fromtwo main works: the Mas'udic Canon

and the Kitab al-Tafhim (a book of in¬structions on the elements of the

science of astrology).

The Mas'udic Canon is an almost

complete encyclopedia of astronomyand of the related sciences. It consists

of 11 volumes dealing simultaneouslywith cosmology, chronology, geographyand mathematics as well as astronomy.Avicenna's Canon of Medicine is justlyfamous, but the sheer scale and theintrinsic value of the Mas'udic Canon

place it in the same category.

In compiling the works of his pre¬decessors, al-Biruni corrected many oftheir mistakes, both theoretical andexperimental. He never made a formalbreak with the geocentric system whichwas universally accepted In the MiddleAges. He was, however, aware of theexistence of the heliocentric systemfrom the works of Greek astronomers

like Asistarchus of Samos, and alsofrom the teachings of certain sageswhom he had met in India.

Al-Biruni hesitated for many yearsbetween the two systems and in factremained undecided until his death; itis important to stress, however, that

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

17

SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION (Continued)

he always maintained that there wasabsolutely no contradiction between theheliocentric hypothesis and the lawsof astronomy. As he himself said:

" I have seen the astrolabe called

Zuraqi invented by Abu Sa'id Sijzi.I liked it very much and praised hima great deal, as it is based on the ideaentertained by some to the effect thatthe motion we see is due to the Earth's

movement and not to that of the sky.By my life, it is a problem difficult ofsolution and refutation . . . For it is the

same whether you take it that the Earthis in motion or the sky. For, In bothcases, it does not affect the Astronomi¬cal Science. It is just for the physicistto see if it is possible to refute it."

Al-Biruni was throughly familiar withthe astronomical works of Ptolemy andother Greek astronomers. In geometry,his work Is based on that of Euclid and

of Archimedes and Theon (4th cen¬tury A.D.), but he was also acquaintedwith the work of the great Indianastronomer Brahmagupta (6th to7th centuries A.D.) and the astronomi¬cal works of the Indian, Tabahafara(7th century A.D.).

In his book on India, al-Biruni quotesa passage from Brahmagupta's bookconcerning the rotation of the earth:

"The followers of Aryabhata maintainthat the earth is moving and heavenresting. People have tried to refutethem by saying that, if such were thecase, stones and trees would fall fromthe earth. "

But, says al-Biruni:

"Brahmagupta does not agree withthem, and says that that would notnecessarily follow from their theory,apparently because he thought that allheavy things are attracted towards thecentre of the earth . . .

"Besides, the rotation of the earth

does in no way impair the value ofastronomy, as all appearances of anastronomic character can quite as wellbe explained according to this theoryas to the other. There are, however,other reasons which make it imposs¬ible. This question is most difficultto solve. The most prominent of bothmodem and ancient astronomers have

deeply studied the question of themoving of the earth, and tried to refuteit. We, too, have composed a bookon the subject called Miftah-ilm-alhai'a(Key to Astronomy), in which we thinkwe have surpassed our predecessors,if not in the words, at all events In thematter."

In his measurements of the circum¬

ference of the earth, he was only110 km. out by comparison with modernmeasurements. He studied the sun

during the eclipse and ways of measur¬ing the illuminated parts of the moon.He described the various phases of thedawn and the dusk and carried out

observations of the new moon. He

studied the astronomy of the stars.He classified the celestial bodies

(planets and fixed stars) by order ofmagnitude (in fact by their luminosity.)He noted stars' positions and observedtheir apparent motion around the poles.His list included 1,029 stars.

He learned about trigonometry fromIndia, and was the first to establish itas a science distinct from that of

astronomy.

He was the first geometrician to usethe radius of the circle as unity, anidea which immenseley simplifiedcalculations. He wrote the best

medieval account of the arithmetical

systems used in India and on methodsof extracting the cube root.

Al-Biruni compiled a table of thelatitudes and longitudes of the 600 mostimportant towns and localities in theIslamic world; this enabled him to

determine with scientific accuracy thedirection of Mecca, to which Muslimsturn to pray. When constructingmosques, builders could thus place themihrabs (semicircular niches In thewall indicating the direction of Mecca)correctly.

For the purposes of cartography, heinvented a special system of stereo-graphic projection, remarkably simpleto use, whereby the part of the globeto be represented is projected on thegreat circle of which the point of visionis the pole.

Al-Biruni was severely critical ofastrologers and their unscientificapproach to their work. Thus it wasthat he came to write a treatise which

he called A Warning Against the Art ofFalse Predictions by the Stars. In theMas'udic Canon, he denounced thealleged "secrets" of astrologers' pre¬dictions, pointing out that, althoughthey were supposed to be dictated bythe influence of the celestial bodies on

human lives, one prediction oftencontradicted another.

He was also a geologist and ob¬served the stratified structure of the

rocks, noting that:

"We have to rely upon the recordsof the rocks and vestiges of the pastto infer that all these changes shouldhave taken place very long ago andunder unknown conditions of cold and

heat: for even now it takes a long timefor water and wind to do their work.

And changes have been going on andobserved and noticed within historicaltimes."

CONTINUED PAGE 42

RAMPARTS

OF GHAZNI

Part of the remains of the

fortifications of ancient Ghaz¬

na (today Ghazni), in Afgha¬nistan. It was here that al-Bi¬

runi spent many years at the

court of the Ghaznavid em¬

perors. (See also back cover).

18

SB*

r<sfii

©G TfiCourier

m

SSV

TjÍ>*ÍAr¿

sm ^* Va

K&ll

isss.&>2

AL-BIRUNI

r v

UiF

Portrait of al-Biruni by the Iranian artistAzarguin based on recent historical research.

MINIATURE ANTHOLOGY

Selections from works by al-Biruni

including many translated

into English for the first time

Al-Biruni is believed to have written at least 150 works (180 according to someauthorities) by the time of his death about 1050 A.D. The actual number is uncer¬tain since roughly four-fifths of his writings have vanished. Al-Biruni himselfrecorded 113 titles in a bibliography he prepared in 1036 when he was 63 yearsof age. In this special supplement, the "Unesco Courier" presents passages fromthe writings of al-Biruni, including many translated into English for the firsttime. Those we present here have been chosen not only to show the originalityand encyclopaedic scope of his thinking, but in particular his narrative talents andthe scientific approach he made to every subject. Highly technical and scientificmaterial has naturally been excluded. The passages published are taken from:Alberuni's India (translated by Edward C. Sachau, 2 volumes, London, 1888);The Chronology of Ancient Nations (translated by Edward C. Sachau, London,1879); Al-Biruni's Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica (translated by HakimMohammed Said, Karachi, 1973); The Determination of the Co-ordinates ofCities (Geodesy); The Mas'udic Canon on Astronomy; Gems, and Bibliographyof the Works ofal-Razi.

^mm^mmBm^m^L. %mmÊ&&

K

«&»

!?SK|

' Photo Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

aaa»

íí^í

INTELLIGENCE

AND REASONING

Some believe that science is of recent

origin, others that it is as old as theworld. The former affirm that its tech¬

niques were taught by "initiation" andgo so far as to maintain that everytechnique was revealed and implantedby a particular prophet. But there areothers who think that man discovers

techniques with the help of Intelligenceand that it is reasoning which enablesthe mind to acquire understanding . . .

When one discovers, by reasoning, alaw or principle, one must proceed fromthe general to the particular. At thesame time, experiment and reflectionallow us to compare one thing withanother and so obtain knowledge indetail...

Time is limitless and successive

generations traverse only stages. Eachpasses on its heritage to the next,which develops and enriches it. Thatis the true metempsychosis, not thesoul, which simply passes from onebody to another.

Bibliography of the Worksof al-Razi

ANTIQUITY'SSUEZ CANAL

When the Persian kings conqueredEgypt they tried to cut a canal throughthe isthmus to link the two seas [theRed Sea and the Mediterranean]. Sea¬going vessels would thus have beenable to sail direct from west to east.

The first king to dream of such a canalwas Sesostris, whose idea was takenup by Darius. A waterway of consider¬able width was dug, of which traces

can be seen to this day. The watersof the Red Sea flowed in at high tideand receded when the tide was low.

However, when the level of the RedSea was measured, the project wasabandoned, for the Red Sea is higherthan the Nile of Egypt and it was fearedthat its waters would engulf that river.During the reign of Ptolemy III, Archi¬medes completed the unfinished worî«without causing the slightest mishap.A Roman king blocked the canal, how¬ever, in order to bar the way to thePersians who threatened to invade

Egypt.The Determination of the

Co-ordinates of Cities (Geodesy).

SCUBA DIVING

IN 1000 A.D.

Someone from Bagdad has told methat pearl divers have recently discover¬ed a method for overcoming the problemof breathing under water. They are thusable to dive from morning till evening,for as long as they like... The device isa leather sac<< which the diver passesover his head and which extends to

just below his chest. He attaches itvery firmly just beneath the lower ribsthen he dives and breathes the air

contained in the bag. But a heavyweight is needed to draw the diver,with his air supply, towards the bottomand to keep him down. It would bemore advantageous to fix to the upperpart of the device a leather tube shapedlike a sleeve, the seams of which arehermetically sealed by wax and tar.The length of the tube should corres¬pond to the depth of water in whichthe diver has to work. The upper endof the tube should be fixed into a largevessel through an opening pierced inthe bottom. One or more bladders

attached to the vessel would keep It

afloat. Breathing air in and out throughthe tube, the diver could then stayunder water as long as he wished, eventhrough the entire day.

Gems

THE NATURE OF GOD

. . . Some Hindu scholar calls God

a point, meaning to say thereby thatthe qualities of bodies do not applyto him. Now some uneducated man

reads this and imagines that Godis as small as a point, and he does notfind out what the word point in thissentence was really intended to express.He will not even stop with this offensivecomparison, but will describe God asmuch larger, and will say "He is twelvefingers long and ten fingers broad."Praise be to God, who is far abovemeasure and numberl Further, if anuneducated man hears what we have

mentioned, that God comprehends theuniverse so that nothing is concealedfrom him, he will at once imagine thatthis comprehending is effected by meansof eyesight; that eyesight is onlypossible by means of an eye, and thattwo eyes are better than only one; andin consequence he will describe God ashaving a thousand eyes, meaning todescribe his omniscience.

Alberuni's India

' THE ENCOMPASSING

OCEANS

The northern regions are uninhabitedbecause of the cold and the snow, butwe find that the shores of the sea,

called the Sea of the Varangians (Bal¬tic Sea), which leads off the EncirclingSea to the north of the lands of the

Slavs (1), are inhabited.These folk live on the shores of the

sea In localities parallel with regionswhich are beset by cold and snow, yet

. ;Mfô 'íáiv^-

Left, map of the world, from a treatise by al-Biruni onastronomy, drawn in Tashkent The north is at thebottom. Below, the same map reversed with the northat the top to facilitate indentification of different regions :1. Caspian Sea, 2. China, 3. India, 4. Persian Gulf,5. Red Sea, 6. Black Sea, 7. Mediterranean, 8. Egypt,9. Morocco, 10. Andalusia, 11. Baltic Sea, 12. The" Encircling Ocean ".Photo S.A. Davldov - © APN, Tashkent

the cold in those places, though severe,is not so extreme.

Furthermore, there are among thesefolk fishermen and hunters who put farout to sea during the summer days and,following the Azimuth of the North Pole,reach places where the Sun at thesummer solstice never descends below

the horizon; observing this with theirown eyes, they then boast among theirkindred that they have been In placeswhere there is no night at all.

As concerns the impossibility of theinhabited regions continuing uninter¬ruptedly to east and west, there Is noexcess of heat or cold to prevent this,but habitability comes to an end becausethe dry land emerged from the onenessof the waters by the will of God aswell as from natural causes. The dryland must therefore be a separate partwithout continuation and it must be

bounded by the encompassing waters.Hence it must have boundaries both tothe east and to the west.

The sea which lies to the south of

the dry land I assume to be a sea leadingout of the encircling sea to the East ofChina, stretching along the Equatorparallel tb China, then to India and toPersia, and then to the land of theArabs, and ending in a gulf of the Seaof Kulzum [Red Sea]. In every placeit is called by the name of the countryoff whose shores it passes.

Similarly, the sea which runs outof the Encircling Sea to the west ofZinJ by the headland known as Rasun(2), stretches southward from the Equa¬tor parallel to the land of the Negroesand the Sofala of the Zinj (3).

Both these regions are locatedbeneath the zenith of the Sun, Moon andStars, for which reason their climate is

mild and their waters are easily navi¬gable.

As concerns the Encircling Ocean tothe West [Atlantic Ocean], it Is anenormous mass of water, but there aremany shoals and shallows in it wherethe water becomes viscous, like a mudspring, so that navigation Is difficultand its paths are unknown. It was forthis reason that the great Hercules sethis signs and pillars opposite Andalus,so that sailors might be deterred fromthe ambition of sailing beyond them.The place where they were set up wasthen probably dry land which has sincebeen covered by the waters.

A worthy traveller recounts in a mes¬sage to Khamza ibn al-Hasan al-lsfa-hani (4) the wonders which he saw Inthe West. He recalls having sailedthrough a narrow strait, the strait [Straitsof Gibraltar] connecting the Syrian Sea[Mediterranean] with the Encircling SeaThe shores were visible both on the

side of Andalus and on the side of

Tangier and Further Sus (5). He lookedInto the waters of the Strait and saw

In Its depths a mighty bridge of rock,and one of those present affirmed thatIt had been built by Alexander. Butthe Andalusians exclaimed: "The devil

take your Alexanderl Could he havetaken the land of the Andalusians to

build this? This was built of old byHercules I "

I believe that "Hercules' crossing"mentioned in Ptolemy's "Geography" isnothing other than this bridge. It wasundoubtedly once above water, but the

water then rose up and covered it.As concerns the Encircling Sea to

the East [Pacific Ocean] it is oftenshrouded in darkness and is a placeof frequent calms, where navigation ismost dangerous.

It is believed that these two seas, theone to the West and the one to the

East of the dry land [the Atlantic andPacific Oceans] are not Joined together.But those who have sailed these seas

and have suffered shipwrecks becauseof the storms recount things which leadus to believe that they may be joined.Recent evidence has furthermore

strengthened these suppositions andindeed given them the character of truth.Ship's timbers have been found boundtogether In the Encircling Sea near itsconfluence with the Syrian Sea. Butit is only In the Indian Sea that timbersare lashed together In this way (becauseof the many magnetic stones which arethere and are a danger to shipping) andnot in the Western Sea, where theships' timbers are not lashed togetherbut fastened with Iron nails. The pre¬sence of these timbers in the Western

Sea is proof that they arrived there by

(1) Slavs who settled on the shores ofthe Baltic the Pomeranians and the

Novgorodian Slovenes.

(2) A name not found In other sources,It may refer to the Cape (Ras) Khafun, theextreme eastern tip of Africa.

(3) " Ethiopians " East African Ne¬groes.

(4) Famous 10th century historian andphilologist.

(5) As-Sus al-Aqsa, medieval name ofpart of Morocco.

*m!$.

m

i&i

m

%t>S.*À

some waterway connecting it to theIndian Sea. This could not have happen¬ed by way of the Sea of Kulzum forbetween it and the Syrian Sea therelies an isthmus.

Nor is it easy to envisage a junctionbetween the two by way of the seawhich lies to the north. In such a case,the timbers, after being broken up inthe Indian Sea, would have had to driftout of it through an eastern strait linkingthe seas (6) and would then have hadto drift around those parts lying to thenorth beneath the zenith of the Polar

Star or through the other northernquarters of the Earth lying opposite thedry land.

This cannot be what happened. Espe¬cially when it is considered that thosewho speak of the joining of the seaspoint out that the level of the easternwaters is higher than that of the westernwaters, just as it was discovered whenthe land was being surveyed that thewaters of the Sea of Kulzum are higherthan those which run into the SyrianSea. The conclusion must be that the

seas are linked to the south of the dryland.

The Determination

of the Co-ordinates of Cities (Geodesy)

(6) AI-Blrunl may have known or conjec¬tured about the existence of the BehringStraits.

SMART SCHOLARS

Once a sage was asked why scholarsalways flock to the doors of the rich,whilst the rich are not inclined to callat the doors of scholars. "The schol¬

ars", he answered, "are well aware ofthe use of money, but the rich areignorant of the nobility of science."

Alberuni's India

'SPEAK THE TRUTH"

That man only is praiseworthy whoshrinks from a lie and always adheresto the truth, enjoying credit even amongliars, not to mention others.

It has been said in the Koran, "Speakthe truth, even if it were againstyourselves" (Sûra, 4, 134); and theMessiah expresses himself in the Gospelto this effect: "Do not mind the fury ofkings in speaking the truth before them.They only possess your body, but theyhave no power over your soul."In these words the Messiah orders us

to exercise moral courage.

Alberuni's India

POWER OF MOONLIGHT

That the moon has certain effects on

moist substances, that they are appar¬ently subject to her influences, that,for instance, increase and decrease inebb and flow develop periodically andparallel with the moon's phases, all thisis well .known to the inhabitants of

seashores and seafaring people.

Likewise physicians are well awarethat she affects the humores of sick

people, and that the fever-days revolveparallel with the moon's course. Phy¬sical scholars know that the life of

animals and plants depends upon themoon, and experimentalists know thatshe influences marrow and brain, eggsand the sediments of wine in casks

and jugs, that she excites the mindsof people who sleep in full moonlight,and that moonlight affects linen clotheswhich are exposed to it.

Peasants know how the moon acts

upon fields of cucumbers, melons,cotton, etc., and even make the timesfor the various kinds of sowing, planting,and grafting, and for the covering of thecattle depend upon the course of themoon. Lastly, astronomers know thatmétéorologie occurrences depend uponthe various phases through which themoon passes in her revolutions.

Alberuni's India

DIAMONDS AND THE EAGLE

Al-Biruni related the story ofthe eagle which collected dia¬monds. Many similar legendsdescribing how precious gemswere obtained in this wayflourished in the East. A num¬

ber were recorded In the

"Thousand and One Nights", andso reached the West, wherethey inspired engravings suchas this, which appeared in"Hortus Sanitatis", published atMainz, Germany, In 1491.

Many strange and unlikely tales aretold about diamond mines and the waythese precious stones are obtained. Itis said for example that the diamond iscalled the eagle's stone. . The originof this name is that diamond prospec¬tors are said to cover the nest in which

eaglets are lying with a piece of glass.The eagle can see its young but, unableto reach them, it goes in search ofdiamonds, which it places on top of theglass. When a goodly number have

been deposited, the prospectors purlointhem, then remove the glass, so deceiv¬ing the eagle into believing that ithas regained its young thanks to fetch¬ing the diamonds. The glass is thenreplaced, and the eagle flies off insearch of more gems.

Gems

THE GREAT ART

OF THE HINDUS

In every place to which some particu¬lar holiness is ascribed, - the Hindus

construct ponds intended for the ab¬lutions. In this they have attained toa very high degree of art, so that ourpeople (the Muslims), when they seethem, wonder at them, and are unableto describe them, much less to constructanything like them. The Hindus buildthem of great stones of an enormousbulk, joined to each other by sharp andstrong cramp-irons, in the form of steps(or terraces) like so many ledges; andthese terraces run all around the pond,reaching to a height of more than aman's stature. On the surface of the

stones between two terraces they con¬struct staircases rising like pinnacles.Thus the first steps or terraces are likeroads (leading round the pond) and thepinnacles are steps (leading up anddown). If ever so many people descendto the pond whilst others ascend, theydo not meet each other, and the roadis never blocked up, because there areso many terraces, and the ascendingperson can always turn aside to anotherterrace than that on which the descend¬

ing people go. By this arrangement alltroublesome thronging is avoided.

Alberuni's India

THE PROPERTIES

OF CHINESE TEA

It is said that chah is a Chineseword and Is meant for a herb which

grows at high altitudes there. It alsogrows in Katha and Nepal. Severalvarieties of it are distinguished on thebasis of its colour: some are white,while the others are green, violet, greyand black.

White tea is the most excellent varietyof the herb; its leaf is slender andfragrant, and exerts its effect on thebody comparatively more swiftly thanall the other varieties. It is rare and

not easily available, followed with regardto availability by the green, violet, greyand black varieties.

The people (of China and Tibet) cookit, and preserve it In a cube-shapedvessel after desiccating it. Tea has thecharacteristics of water but is especiallybenefical in overcoming the influenceof tippling. For this reason it is takento Tibet where people habitually quaffconsiderable quantities of wine, andthere Is no better médecine for negatingthe effect of liquor than this herb.Those who transport it to Tibet acceptnothing in barter but musk.

%agaEB£&^^

In the book, Akhbar al-Sln it has

been stated that thirty bags of tea costa dirham, and its taste is sweet coupledwith sourness. On boiling, however,the sourness disappears.

The people (of China and Tibet) drinkit. It is said that they drink it withhot water and believe it to be a chola-

gogue [promoting the flow of bile] andblood purifier. A person who travelledto the place of its occurrence in Chinahas stated that the king of that countryresides in the city of Yanju. A bigriver like the Tigris traverses this city.Both sides of the river are studded

with wine sellers' tenements, kilns and

shops. People flock there to drink tea,and do not take Indian cannabis clan¬

destinely. The king of the place receivesthe capitation tax, and the public cannottransact the sale of tea, since bothtea and wine are in the possession ofthe king. He who transacts businessin salt and tea without the king beingaware of it is awarded the punishmentdue to a thief.

Profits from such places go to thecoffers of the king and such profitsequal those accruing from gold andsilver mines. Some physicians havementioned in their pharmacopoeia thattea Is the plant produced in China. Thepeople of that country make tabletsfrom it and take them to foreign lands.

These pharmacopoeia also describethe origin of tea. A Chinese king becamedispleased with one of his courtierswhom he exiled from the city in thedirection of the mountains. The cour¬

tier was seized by a fever, and oneday he trudged, in a desperate state,towards the mountain valleys. He wasbeing gnawed by hunger, and he sawonly tea plants, whose leaves he ate.After a few days, his fever began toabate. He continued eating tea leavestill he recovered completely.

Another courtier happened to passthat way. He saw the courtier whohad made this remarkable recovery,and informed the king about it. Theking was surprised and he recalledthe exiled courtier and enquired fromhim the reason for his recovery. Thecourtier then narrated the remarkable

medicinal properties of tea.

The king thereupon ordered that teashould be tested, and his physiciansenumerated its advantages to him. Theyalso began to incorporate tea inmedicines.

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

THE LODESTONE

Like amber, the lodestone has theproperty of attraction. But It rendersgreater service, because it can drawa blade from a wound, the point of alancet from a vein or a metal ringswallowed and lying In the stomach.According to Dioscorides, the best lode-stones are the colour of lapis lazuli.When burnt, the lodestone becomes red

Ironstone. Yet, we have never seenthis stone and no one has described it

to us. In an anonymous work, it is saidthat the best lodestone Is a reddish

black, followed by lodestone the colourof fire. Some say that the most soughtafter lodestone Is more plentiful in theZabtara region, on the eastern confinesof the Roman Empire, than anywhereelse on earth.

It is said also that the hulls of shipsbuilt for crossing the Arabian Gulf arebound with palm fibres threaded throughholes drilled in the planks, while theboards of ships sailing on the Medi¬terranean are secured with iron nails.

The avoidance of nails in the former

case is explained by the presence ofhidden lodestone reefs in the Gulf,which could constitute a grave dangerfor ships built with iron fixings. Thisis a far-fetched argument, however,because the ships that cross the Ara¬bian Gulf cannot dispense with anchorsand are always laden with Iron imple¬ments, notably weapon blades fromIndia.

Gems

15th Century engraving showingthe foundering of a ship on amagnetic rock. From "HortusSanitatis", Mainz 1491.

WHY THE EARTH IS ROUND

As concerns the curvature of the

Earth in the directions between longi¬tude and latitude, it may be ascertain¬ed by means of the longest days inthe towns we have mentioned. Let us

consider, for instance, the town of Bul-gar, in the far north, and the townof Aden, lying far to the south of it.In and around Aden, the length of thelongest day is little more than twelvehours, whilst in Bulgar it is little lessthan seventeen hours. There is a dif¬

ference of two hours between the hours

of sunrise and sunset in those two

towns. Consequently, at the time ofsunrise over Aden, the Sun has alreadyrisen to a height of two hours' travelin the sky over Bulgar.

Thus, In summer, an observer in Bul¬gar looking In the direction of the sun¬rise or sunset sees a part of the skycorresponding to that magnitude, whilstthe same part of the sky is not visiblein Aden, being situated In a circle be¬neath the very Pole. Similarly, a partof the sky of similar magnitude is visi¬ble at sunrise and sunset In winter, when

it is not visible in Bulgar.

This being the case, we may assertthat a line traced on the Earth in the

direction of latitude, that is to say ameridian, must of necessity be eitherstraight, or a concave or convex curve.

As regards the probability of its beinga straight line... the facts themselvesrefute such a hypothesis, so that thesurface of the Earth cannot be flat in

this direction. As to the meridian beingconcave, if It were, the height of thePole, that is to say the number ofstars permanently visible in the farsouth, would diminish as the obser¬

ver moved northwards, becoming fewerand fewer the further north he went.

In fact, the opposite occurs, the numberof such stars becoming greater, whichimplies the convexity of the meridianand hence the curvature of the Earth.

Thus the Earth is round in this direc¬

tion too, and if the same is true both

in the directions of latitude and longi¬tude, then the Earth's surface must be

spherical.

Moreover, mountains, however highthey may be, do not alter this shape,since they are small In comparison withthe whole and are mere wrinkles which

detract from the smoothness of its sur¬

face but not from the roundness of

the whole.

If the observer still harbours certain

doubts and thinks that this curvature

is characteristic only of the inhabitedparts of the Earth but not Its otherparts... let us turn for confirmation toanother argument, the Earth's shadow...If an object Is round, its shadow Isround, if it Is triangular its shadowis triangular, if square then square, ifoblong oblong, and so forth with othershapes.

When we observe an object castinga shadow upon the Moon, we see thatits edges are rounded, especially nearthe fullest point of the eclipse whenwe may see most of the circumferenceof the object casting the shadow andthe roundness of the object, thus con¬cluding that the Intersection of the partof the Earth illuminated by the Sun andthe part casting the shadow ¡s a cir¬cle... Since such intersections are nu¬

merous, corresponding in number to thenumber of observations and since theyconcern different parts of the Earth,yet all have this in common, that theyall throw a rounded shadow upon theMoon, there can be no doubt as to

the shape of the Earth, which is Indeedconfirmed to be rounded on all sides.

The Mas'udic Canon on Astronomy

ÏZ&Ïm

s»

5«a

ra

m

n«i3i

:<i-s

vernimm

Ï?*WS

fi

m

m

THE CAPRICIOUS

TURQUOISE

We have ceased to prize the turquoisesince it changes rapidly with changesIn the skies, as they clear or are cover¬ed with cloud, and also with the capriceof the wind. Further, perfumes diminishthe brillance of the turquoise, toilet waterattacks its lustre and unguents dull itcompletely. For these reasons the tur¬quoise does not rank as a preciousstone. It Is thought to come from a"mud which has petrified". It may bepolished with grease or the fatty tail ofthe sheep. That Is why it flashes witha brillant fire in the hands of a butcher,

particularly one who has flayed an ani¬mal's skin, while grasping it with hishand.

Gems

INDIA WAS ONCE A SEA

... If you have seen the soil of Indiawith your own eyes and meditate onits nature if you consider the roundedstones found in the earth however

deeply you dig, stones that are hugenear the mountains and where the

rivers have a violent current; stonesthat are of smaller size at greaterdistance from the mountains, and wherethe streams flow more slowly; stonesthat appear pulverized in the form ofsand where the streams begin to stag¬nate near their mouths and near the

sea if you consider all this, you canscarcely help thinking that India hasonce been a sea which by degrees hasbeen filled up by the alluvium of thestreams.

Alberuni's India

WITCHCRAFT AND SCIENCE

We understand by witchcraft, makingby some kind of delusion a thing appearto the senses as something differentfrom what it is in reality. Taken inthis sense, it is far spread among peo¬ple. Understood, however, as commonpeople understand it, as the producingof something which is impossible, it Isa thing which does not lie within thelimits of reality. For as that which Isimpossible cannot be produced, thewhole affair is nothing but a grossdeception. Therefore witchcraft In thissense has nothing whatever to do withscience.

One of the species of witchcraft isalchemy, though it is generally not calledby this name. But if a man takes abit of cotton and makes It appear asa bit of gold, what would you call thisbut a piece of witchcraft? It is quitethe same as if he were to take a bit

of silver and make It appear as gold,only with this difference, that the latteris a generally-known process, I. e. thegilding of silver, the former Is not.

The Hindus do not pay particularattention to alchemy, but no nation isentirely free from it, and one nation has

more bias for it than another, whichmust not be construed as provingintelligence or ignorance; for we findthat many Intelligent people are entirelygiven to alchemy, whilst ignorant peopleridicule the art and its adepts. Thoseintelligent people, though boisterouslyexulting over their make-believe science,are not to be blamed for occupyingthemselves with alchemy, for theirmotive is simply excessive eagernessfor acquiring fortune and for avoidingmisfortune.

Alberuni's India

AI-Blrunl used a vase similar

to this to calculate the specificgravity of various substancessuch as metals and stones.

Ingeniously constructed, thevessel enabled him to ascertain

the volume of water displacedby an immersed object and sodetermine its specific gravitywith a high degree of accuracy.He put the specific gravity ofgold at 19.0 (it is actually 19.3),Iron at 7.92 (actually 7.9) andlapis-lazuli at 3.91 (3.90).

ON-THE-SPOT OBSERVATION

Reliance on personal observation andon-the-spot examination enhance thecapacity to remember and distinguishfacts and also to Identify objects, notonly in pharmacy but in other pro¬fessions and crafts. Gathering datathrough direct handling and observationis a greater advantage to be encourag¬ed over mere reading of books.

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

A HEMISPHERE

10 CUBITS IN DIAMETER

I began by correcting the distancesand the names of places and towns,basing my work on what I had heardabout those who had visited those

places and what I could learn fromthe mouths of those who had seen

them. I took the precaution of verify¬ing the reliability of the material andof comparing the evidence of differentwitnesses.

I spared neither energy nor moneyIn order to achieve my purpose and Iconstructed a hemisphere 10 cubits [5.4metres] in diameter, on which to basethe longitudes and latitudes of theplaces and towns as calculated fromtheir distances, since time did not allowme to use mathematical calculations,

the distances being so many and thecalculations so long.

The Determination

of the Co-ordinates of Cities (Geodesy)

THE MISER & THE BOOK

"He who Just collects boot« andprides himself on their possession islike a miser who fills his chests andlocks them."

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

25 WAYS TO FREEDOM

According to the Hindu philosophers,liberation is common to all castes and

to the whole human race, if their inten¬

tion of obtaining it is perfect. This viewis based on the saying of Vyâsa: "Learnto know the twenty-five things (I. e. thetwenty-five elements of existence)thoroughly. Then you may followwhatever religion you like; you will nodoubt be liberated."

Alberuni's India

THE GEOMETRY OF FLOWERS

Among the peculiarities of the flowersthere is one really astonishing fact, viz.the number of their petals, the tops ofwhich form a circle when they beginto open, is in most cases conformableto the laws of geometry. In most casesthey agree with the chords that havebeen found by the laws of geometry,not with conic sections.

You scarcely ever find a flower of7 or 9 petals, for you cannot constructthem according to the laws of geometryin a circle as isosceles (triangles). Thenumber of their petals, is always 3 or 4or 5 or 6 or 18. This is a matter of

frequent occurrence. Possibly one mayfind one day some species of flowerswith 7 or 9 petals, or one may findamong the species hitherto known sucha number of petals; but, on the whole,one must say nature preserves Itsgenera and species such as they are.

For If you would, for example, countthe number of seeds of one of the

(many) pomegranates of a tree, youwould find that all the other pomegra¬nates contain the same number ofseeds as that one the seeds of which

you have counted first. So, too, natureproceeds in all other matters.

Frequently, however, you find in thefunctions (actions) of nature which it isher office to fulfil, some fault (someirregularity) ... I, however, do not callthem "faults of nature", but rather asuperfluity of material beyond the due

m%z&

proportions of the measure of everything.To this category belong, for example,animals with supernumerary limbs,which occur sometimes, when nature,whose task it is to preserve the speciesas they are, finds some superfluoussubstance, which she forms into some

shape instead of throwing it away.

Chronology of Ancient Nations

AN AGE OF IMITATORS

The most important requirement ofmedicine is that the man of medicineshould examine the terms of reference

as regards natural science and shouldbe fully acquainted with the naturallaws. When he comes to the resolution

of the ingredients of a drug every medi¬cinal ingredient is arrayed in a differentaspect before him and each one hasproperties that argue differently. Thisis what the art of pharmacy shouldachieve, but alasl ours is an age ofblind imitation, and people mostly goby hearsay. Only he who sedulouslylearns from the masters the fundamen¬tals of the art and follows their di¬

rections can ever hope to achievemastery.

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

Photo © Gérard Dufresne, Paris

In his treatise on preciousstones, al-Biruni wrote, "I usedto have a disc of onyx, onwhich wavy lines formed theperfect figure of a duck, thelegs being invisible as if it wasswimming or sitting on its eggs;the representation was faultless,as if done by a skilful artist"This figured onyx shows not aduck but a fish. It Is part ofthe private collection of thewriter Roger Caillois, of theAcadémie Française.

LAWS OF NATURE

. . . The bees kill those of their kind

who only eat, but do not work in theirbeehive.

Nature proceeds in a similar way;however, It does not distinguish, for itsaction is under all circumstances one

and the same. It allows the leaves andfruit of the trees to perish, thus pre¬venting them from realizing that resultwhich they are intended to produce in

%&$&

the economy of nature. It removesthem so as make room for others.

If thus the earth is ruined, or is nearto be ruined, by having too manyinhabitants, its ruler for it has a ruler,and his all-embracing care is apparentin every single particle of it sends ita messenger for the purpose of reducingthe too great number and of cuttingaway all that is evil.

Alberuni's India

THE NATURE OF TIME

Some people maintain that timeconsists of cycles, at the end of whichall created beings perish, whilst theygrow at their beginning; that each suchcycle has a special Adam and Eve ofits own, and that the chronology of thiscycle depends upon them. Other people,again, maintain that in each cycle aspecial Adam and Eve exist for eachcountry in particular, and that hence thedifference of human structure, nature,and language is to be derived.

Other people, besides, hold thisfoolish persuasion, viz that time has noterminus a quo at all.

Now, personal observation alone, andconclusions inferred therefrom, do notprove a long duration of the human life,and the huge size of human bodies, andwhat else has been related to be beyondthe limits of possibility. For similarmatters appear in the course of timein manifold shapes. There are certainthings which are bound to certain times,within which they turn round In a certainorder, and which undergo transfor¬mations as long as there is a possibilityof their existing. If they, now, are notobserved as long as they are inexistence, people think them to be im¬probable, and hasten to reject them asaltogether impossible.

This applies to all cyclical occurrences,such as the mutual impregnation ofanimals and trees, and the forthcomingof the seeds and their fruits. For, if itwere possible that men did not knowthese occurrences, and then were ledto a tree, stripped of its leaves, andwere told what occurs to the tree of

getting green, of producing blossomsand fruits, etc., they would certainlythink it improbable, till they saw it withtheir own eyes. It Is for the samereason that people, who come fromnorthern countries, are filled with ad¬miration when they see palm-trees,olive-trees, and myrtle-trees, and othersstanding in full-bloom at wintertime,since they never saw anything like It intheir own country.

Further, there are other thingsoccurring at times In which no cyclicalorder Is apparent, and which seem tohappen at random. If, then, the timeIn which the thing occurred has goneby, nothing remains of it except thereport about it. And if you find In sucha report all the conditions of authenticity,and if the thing might have alreadyoccurred before that time, you mustaccept it, though you have no Idea of the

nature nor of the cause of the matterin question.

Chronology of Ancient Nations

PARABLE OF THE

FOUR PUPILS

A man Is travelling together with hispupils for some business or other

towards the end of the night. Thereappears something standing erect beforethem on the road, the nature of whichit is impossible to recognize on accountof the darkness of night. The manturns towards his pupils, and asks them,one after the other, what it is. Thefirst says: "I do not know what it is." Thesecond says: "I do not know, and I haveno means of learning what it is." Thethird says "It is useless to examinewhat it is, for the rising of the day willreveal it. If it is something terrible,it will disappear at daybreak; if it issomething else, the nature of the thingwill anyhow be clear to us." Now, noneof them had attained to knowledge, thefirst, because he was ignorant; thesecond, because he was incapable, andhad no means of knowing; the third,because he was indolent and acquiescedin his ignorance.

The fourth pupil, howeyer, did notgive an answer. He stood still, andthen he went on In the direction of theobject. On coming near, he found thatit was pumpkins on which there lay atangled mass of something. Now heknew that a living man, endowed withfree will, does not stand still In hisplace until such a tangled mass Isformed on his head, and he recognizedat once that It was a lifeless objectstanding erect. Further, he could notbe sure if it was not a hidden placefor some dunghill. So he went quiteclose to It, struck against it with hisfoot till it fell to the ground. Thus alldoubt having been removed, he returnedto his master and gave him the exactaccount.

Alberuni's India

SOLAR AND LUNAR YEARS

... People distinguish two kinds ofyears the Solar year and the Lunaryear. They have not used other starsfor the purpose of deriving years fromthem, because their motions are compar¬atively hidden, and can hardly ever befound out by eyesight; but only by astro¬nomical observations and experiments...

The Solar Year. According to thestatement of Theon (1), In his Canon,the people of Constantinople, and ofAlexandria, and the other Greeks, theSyrians and Chaldaeans, the Egyptiansof our time... all use the solar year,which consists of nearly 365 i days.They reckon their year as 365 days, andadd the quarters of a day in every fourthyear as one complete day... This year

IjSP

l¿f¿s

PS

TÓV

m

m

wm

m

í^mi^^í^:<^i^^tí^:íyíí-^Crí2^:^^í^

- À "7 f .

they call an intercalary year, becausethe quarters are intercalated therein.The ancient Egyptians followed the samepractice, but with this difference, thatthey neglected the quarters of a daytill they had summed up to the numberof days of one complete year, whichtook place in 1,460 years; then theyIntercalated one year.

The Persians followed the same rule

as long as their empire lasted; but they.,treated it differently. For they reckonedtheir year as 365 days, and neglectedthe following fractions until the day-quarters had summed up in the courseof 120 years to the number of days ofone complete month and until the fifthparts of an hour, which, according totheir opinion, follow the fourth parts ofa day (i.e. they give the solar year thelength of 365 i days and 1/5 hour), hadsummed up to one day; then they addedthe complete month to the year in each116th year.

The Luni-Solar Year. The Hebrews,

Jews, and all the Israelites, the Sâbians,and Harrânians, used an intermediate

system. They derived their year fromthe revolution of the sun, and its monthsfrom the revolution of the moon with

this view, that their feast and fast daysmight be regulated by lunar computation,and at the same time keep their placeswithin the year. Therefore they inter¬calated 7 months In 19 lunar years.

Chronology of Ancient Nations

ON HINDU RELIGIONS

Everything which exists on this subject[the religions of the Hindus] in ourliterature is second-hand information

which one has copied from the other,a farrago of materials never sifted bythe sieve of critical examination.

...I have written this book on the

doctrines of the Hindus, never makingany unfounded imputations againstthose, our religious antagonists, andat the same time not considering itinconsistent with my duties as a Muslimto quote their own words at full lengthwhen I thought they would contribute toelucidate a subject. If the contents ofthese quotations happen to be utterlyheathenish, and the followers of thetruth, I. e. the Muslims, find themobjectionable, we can only say that suchis the belief of the Hindus, and that theythemselves are best qualified todefend it.

Alberuni's India

THE WEAK FOUNDATIONS

OF ASTROLOGY

The art of astrology in general isbuilt upon weak foundations and itsdeductions are Insubstantial. Its calcul¬

ations are confused and it is mostlysupposition rather than reliable know¬ledge. The subject matter of astrology

consists of the various configurationsof heavenly bodies which are themselvescontingent on the chosen points onthe heavenly sphere itself or on a certainrelationship between that and the hori¬zon. Astrology therefore can neverproduce positive results since its verybasis is unreliable.

How indeed could it be reliable, whenthe exact location of the object forwhich the calculations are made and for

which the future is foretold by meansof horoscopes of "conjunctions" and"oppositions" is unknown and when theactual positions of these configurationsconflict with those which are used I

The Determination

of the Co-ordinates of Cities (Geodesy)

ON LEARNING

Learning is the fruit of repetition.

Alberuni's India

THE PERFUMER'S ART

Dari was a port in the old days wherescents and perfumes were unloadedand therefrom perfumers went fromone city to another selling them, orbought by the people of the Qurayshtribe. The Quraysh possessed amasterly expertise in this art. It Isbecause of this that the Arabs call

apothecaries Dari. In the hadith theHoly Prophet (peace be on Him) said:"The example of a noble and sincereperson is like that of a Dari whoseperfumes, even if he does not give anyof them to you, will all the same havetheir pleasant smell; and a bad com¬panion is like an ironsmith who, eventhough he may not singe you with thesparks of his furnace will at leastharass you with its smoke."

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

THE DESALTING

OF WATER

People say that on the 6th [of January]there is an hour during which all saltwater of the earth becomes sweet. All

the qualities occurring in the waterdepend exclusively upon the nature ofthat soil by which the water is enclosed,if it be standing, or over which the waterflows, if it be running. Those qualitiesare of a stable nature, not to be alteredexcept by a process of transformationfrom degree to degree by means ofcertain media. Therefore this statement

of the waters becoming sweet in thisone hour is entirely unfounded.

Continual and leisurely experimen¬tation will show to any one the futilityof this assertion. For if the water were

sweet It would remain sweet for some

space of time. Nay, if you wouldplace in this hour or any other in awell of salt water some pounds of pure

dry wax, possibly the saltiness of thewater would diminish. This has been

mentioned by the experimenters, who goso far as to maintain that if you makea thin vase of wax and place it ¡n seawater, so that the mouth of the vase

emerges above the water, those dropsof water which splash over into thevase become sweet.

If all salt water were mixed with so

much sweet water as would overpowerits nature, in that case their theorywould be realized (i.e. all salt waterswould become sweet). An example ofthis process is afforded by the lake ofTlnnis, the water of which is sweet in

autumn and winter in consequence ofthe great admixture of the water of theNile, whilst at the other seasons it is

salt, because there is very little ad¬mixture of Nile water.

Chronology of Ancient Nations

QUALITIES OF ARABIC

All the arts of the world have been

transferred to the Arabic language; ithas penetrated deep into our hearts,and its charms have crossed into

the innermost reaches of our being,although to every people their ownlanguage appears to be sweet, sincethey use it day in, day out.

When I observe my language, I findthat if any art is rendered Into it, itwould look de trop and odd. On theother hand, if the same art is renderedInto Arabic, it would look natural and

good, even though Arabic does nothappen to be my mother tongue.

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

THE RUSE OF

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Some say that the diamond wasbrought by the Bicornutus (Alexanderthe Great) from the valley of the dia¬monds, a valley teeming with snakes.Whoever set eyes on these reptileswould instantly perish. The Bicornutusadvanced on the snakes with a mirror

carried by men who were hidden behindit. When the snakes saw their reflec¬

tions, they died on the spot. Yet thesesnakes had looked upon each otherwithout dying and the sight of the realthing should have been more deadlythan the mere reflection.

Gems

MUSLIM ADAGE

"Your knowledge should not be likethe clothes that you wear, and not likelyto be washed away while you are takingyour bath."

Adage quoted by al-Biruni.

Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica

w

m

m

m

mm

i'H'^ï.;'

MiâïM&M&&Ê: ,

AL-BIRUNI vs. AVICENNA

IN THE BOUT

OF THE CENTURY

Two geniuses aged 24 and 17debate the nature of the universe

bySeyyed Hossein Nasr

SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR, rector of Arya-mehr University, in Teheran, is the authorof a remarkable study on al-Biruni, publishedin his "An Introduction to Islamic Cosmo-

logical Doctrines" (Harvard University Press,1964), in which he dealt with al-Biruni, Avi¬cenna and Ikwan al-Safa. Professor of theHistory of Science and Philosophy at Arya-mehr University, he has devoted anotherbook to great Islamic scholars, "Three Mus¬lim Sages" (Avicenna, Suhrawardi and Ibn'Arabi) published by Harvard University Press.Last year his "Al-Biruni end Ibn Sina - Ques¬tions and Answers" was published by theHigh Council of Culture and Art in Teheran.Our text is abridged from the Englishintroduction to this work.

I|N the rich tradition ofIslamic intellectual history there areseveral instances in which leadingthinkers have left in writing theexchanges of ideas and debates whichthey have carried out with each otheron the highest Intellectual level.

One of the most important is theseries of Questions and Answers

exchanged between al-Blruni andAvicenna (Ibn Sina) in which Avicenna'sstudent Ma'sumi, also took part. Thisseries of exchanges stands as a peakof Islamic intellectual history and a keyto the understanding of an aspect ofal-Biruni's thought not discussedextensively in his other writings.

The Questions and Answers, include

ten questions pertaining to Aristotle'sDe Cáelo (On the Heavens) and eightother questions posed by al-Birunihimself. These are answered byAvicenna one by one. Then al-Blrunionce again responds to Avicenna'sanswers, discussing eight of the firstten and seven of the last eightquestions. Finally Ma'sumi answersal-Biruni once again on behalf ofAvicenna.

There are then altogether two setsof exchanges on some of the mostfundamental points of "natural phil¬osophy" between al-Blruni, the "in¬dependent" scientist and thinker, andAvicenna the most eminent represen¬tative of the Islamic Peripatetic (ma-

CONTINUED PAGE 29

¿# «i

4 *

w"l\Ä

AL-BIRUNI ON THE SCREEN (continued)

Two further scenes from the forth¬

coming film on al-Biruni. Above, thegreat scientist and an assistant discussa reading from the quadrant he cons¬tructed for determining latitude bymeasuring the sun's elevation. Belowleft, al-Biruni (right of photo) talks withan Indian sage during the travels he

Photos N. Kasyanov j APN, Tachkent

AL-BIRUNI vs. AVICENNA (Continued)

undertook before writing his monu¬

mental "India". Below right, the filmcrew on location. The film is being

directed by Shukhrat Abbasov (wearing

cap) from a scenario written by thehistorian and orientalist Pavlov Bulga¬kov, al-Biruni's Russian translator.

shsha'i) school, and one of his fore¬most pupils, Abu Sa'id ibn Ali al-Ma'sumi.

In one question al-Biruni criticizesthe reasons given in Aristoteliannatural philosophy for denying that thecelestial spheres have gravity or levity.Al-Biruni does not reject the view ofAristotle but criticizes the reasons

given to sustain such a view.Moreover, he attacks the Aristotelianthesis that circular motion is innate

to heavenly bodies, asserting thatalthough the heavenly bodies do movein circular motion, such a motion couldbe "forced" and accidental while themotion natural to these bodies could

be straight.

Avicenna replies to these objectionsalong the lines of argument presentedin standard works of Aristotelian

natural philosophy.

In another question al-Biruni criticizesAristotle's over-reliance on the views

of the ancients and his oredecessors

concerning the conditions of theheavens without relying upon hisown observation. Al-Biruni gives anexample of the Hindu description ofmountains which he says cannot berelied upon because If one observesthem today one sees that they havealtered.

Avicenna reminds al-Biruni of the

difference between mountains which

undergo generation and corruption andthe celestial bodies which do not do so.

Furthermore, he accuses al-Biruni ofhaving learned this argument fromeither John Philoponus, who wasopposed to Aristotle because hehimself was a Christian, or Mohammed

ibn Zakariyya' al-Razi, who accordingto Avicenna should have remained

content with medicine and not meddled

in metaphysics, in which he had nocompetence.

kL-BIRUNI criticizes the

Aristotelian denial of the possibilityof the existence of another world

completely different from the one weknow, and unknown to us becauseit is completely veiled to our senses.He cites as illustration the fact that

it is impossible for the person whois born blind to conceive of vision.

In the same way there might be otherworlds for the perception of whichman does not have the necessaryfaculties. Avicenna accepts the exist¬ence of other worlds which differ fromthis world but defends the Aristotelian

view that there cannot be another

world such as this with the same ele¬

ments and nature.

After these questions which arerelated to Aristotle's De Cáelo, al-

Biruni poses eight other questionshimself related to natural philosophy.

Al-Biruni, for example, asks howvision is possible. Why can we seebeneath water whereas water is an

opaque body which should reflect therays of light at its surface? Avicenna

states that according to Aristotlevision results from the eye becomingaffected by the "qualities" of visiblecolours contained in the air that is in

contact with it. According to thistheory the problem mentioned by al-Biruni does not arise since both water

and air are transparent bodies thatcan transmit the colours to the sense

of sight, thus making vision possible.

If there is no vacuum either inside

or outside this world, al-Biruni asks,

why is it that if the air within a flaskis sucked out water rises up in it?Avicenna answers that this is not due

to a vacuum. Rather, a certain amount

of the air remaining in the flaskcontracts as a result of the coldness

of the water causing the water to risewithin the flask.

If things expand through heating andcontract through cooling then why, al-Biruni asks, does a flask full of waterbreak when the water within it freezes?

Avicenna believes that it is the air

which upon being cooled contracts,almost causing a vacuum to be createdin the flask, and since that is notpossible, causing the flask to break.

Finally, al-Biruni queries, why doesice float on water while its earthy partsare more than water and it is therefore

heavier than water? Avicenna repliesthat upon freezing ice preserves in itsinternal spaces and lattices airy partswhich prevent it from sinking in water.

An examination of the questionsposed by al-Biruni reveals their vitalsignificance for the history of science.In Islamic civilization the main school

of natural philosophy which served asthe immediate philosophical back¬ground for most Muslim scientists wasthe Peripatetic, itself a synthesis ofthe views of Aristotle, his Alexandriancommentators and certain elements of

later Neoplatonism. Avicenna in hisPeripatetic writings represents thismain current in its most mature form.

But there was also an anti-Aristo¬

telian current which is of much

importance for an understanding ofIslamic science, to which the questionsof al-Biruni belong. Some of the anti-Aristotelian elements derived from

schools related to the Pythagorean-Hermetic heritage of Antiquity such asthe writings of Jabir ibn Hayyan andthe Ikhwan al-Safa' while others issued

from the logical criticism of individualphilosophers and scientists such asMohammed ibn Zakariyya' al-Ra^i andal-Biruni.

Al-Biruni's criticism of Peripateticnatural philosophy is one of thesharpest attacks on this dominantschool. It touches upon the mostdifficult and thorny problems of Aristo¬telian physics and for that reasonresembles some of the argumentsagainst this form of physics byRenaissance and 17th century scientists

in the West, although the point of view QJof al-Biruni is ven' different from that Lm

of the Western critics of Aristotle.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

LOST HORIZONS

IN THE

LAND OF POETRY

The vanished works

of a scientist

turned man of lettersbyZabihollah Safa

I|T is sometimes difficultto make a distinction between the"scholar" and the "man of letters" ofIslamic civilization. In both the Araband the Persian worlds, the twocornerstones of Islamic literature, it

frequently happens that great scholarsin the fields of philosophy, medicine,natural history or mathematics are alsopoets and men of letters.

In some cases they even put asidetheir scientific preoccupations and setabout recounting or writing tales oranecdotes. Philosophers and thinkerssuch as Avicenna and al-Blruni, in the11th century, and Suhrawardl In the12th, have thus left behind them novelsand stories written in Arabic or In

Arabic and Persian.

Avicenna wrote two well-known

philosophical novels In Arabic, whichforeshadowed certain later Persian

works.

Islamic scholars found a welcome

source of diversion in writing poetry,and there are very few Iranian scholarswho did not at some time or another

apply themselves to verse in Arabicor Persian. One of the earliest amongthem Is al-Farabl, some of whose

quatrains in Persian are still extant.

At a later date when scholars

versified to their heart's content, Avi¬cenna became a prolific writer of verse

30

ZABIHOLLAH SAFA is the author of a bookon the life and works of al-Biruni. He is

president of the Iranian National Commissionfor Unesco and professor of literature at theUniversity of Teheran. He has written severalworks on Avicenna, and is now compilingfor Unesco an annotated bibliography inArabic and Persian on the writings of al-Biruni. He also prepared, for Unesco'sCollection of Representative Works, the"Anthologie de la Poésie Persane", publishedby Editions Gallimard, Paris, in 1964.

in Arabic as well as Persian. Al-

Biruni, an author of serious scientificworks, also wrote poetry in Arabic,and others, such as the great 12th cen¬tury mathematician, philosopher anddoctor, Omar Khayyam, became sowell known for their literary work thattheir names have been handed down

to posterity as poets rather than asscholars.

These are but a few of the manyexamples we could quote, for Arabicand Persian literary history is rich insuch many-sided talents. At thattime the language of science wasArabic, and the approach to anyscientific discipline necessarily invol¬ved learning Arabic. In Irano-Arablcschools the teaching of Arabic lan¬guage and literature preceded allother subjects; Arabic prose andpoetry were used as a means to enablepupils to benefit from text bookswritten in Arabic, and students learnedby heart works of prose and verseby leading writers and poets.

This meant that the student beganIslamic schooling with an introductionto Arabic, which he continued to studythroughout his life, and which oftenled him to an interest in literature, evenwhen his main preoccupation was therational study of a specific field ofscience. So it is hardly surprising thatthe great scientist-scholar al-Birunibecame interested In literature and

composed verses for his own pleasure.

Yaqut of Hama examined some ofal-Biruni's literary works in the libraryat Marw (or Merv) shortly before theMongol invasion of Khorassan in the13th century. The vestiges of Merv,former capital of Khorassan, can stillbe seen near the modern city of Maryin the Soviet Turkmenistan Republic.

Yaqut's bibiography of al-Birunishows that the latter wrote a consi¬

derable number of literary and criticalworks: among many others, an Arabicetymology, commentaries on the poemsof the great Arabic poet Abi Tamman,and even an anthology entitled " Selec¬tion of Verse and Literary Works".

One of his most important works,of a literary rather than a scientificstamp, deals with his native region ofKhwarizm. Although this book waswidely known during the 11th and12th centuries, it has since disap¬peared. Fortunately, part of It is quotedby the 11th century Persian writer-historian Balaghl, and the fragmentwhich has reached us demonstrates

al-Biruni's scrupulous and Impartialresearch into historical events, theircauses and their consequences.

The value of al-Biruni's work lies

in the vast scope of his knowledge,which, particularly in respect to pre-Islamic nations, was not shared byhis contemporaries. This is largelydue to his command of languagesIranian, Arabic, Syriac and Sanskritwere as familiar to him as Soghdian,the language of his native Khwarizm.He was also able to use Arabictranslations of works written In Greek

and Syriac.Al-Biruni was of both a serious and

lighthearted turn of mind; perhaps hispenchant for humour and jokes wasa counterweight to the scientific rigourof his studies. In his personal rela¬tionships and in his conversation, ashis biographers have noted, he revealsa pleasant open nature and a spiritedwit. Occasionally, he surprises hisreaders by the use of earthy terms inhis poems.

It may have been this trait that ledhim to translate or write a number of

Al-Biruni wrote several novels which unfortunately have not come down to us.One of these, entitled The Two Idols of Bamian, is about two Buddhist statues,

of a man and a woman, carved from the face of a huge cliff of Bamian innorthwest Afghanistan. The now famous cliff is honeycombed with caves,which provide a dramatic setting for numerous carvings and paintings. Thetwo colossal stone Buddhas, stand majestically in the shelter of the rock,dominating the entire valley. Above, the smaller of the two (35 metres high).The larger statue stands 53 metres high. The sculptures date from the 4th-5thcentury A.D.

popular or folk romances while en¬gaged In exacting scientific work. Inthe inventory of his writings, which hemade when he was 65 years old, helists six novels, which have all unfor¬tunately been lost. Works by otherauthors and poets, however, recordpassages from these novels, but it Isnot known whether they were writtenin Arabic or in Persian.

The adventure of "Vamegh and

Azra", an ancient legend of Greekorigin which found its way Into Pahlaviliterature, is a love story. Onsori, apoet of the time, seems to have usedthis as a source of inspiration for hisown poetic work, "Vamegh and Azra";it was at a much later date that several

other poets put this tale Into verse.It Is worth noting here that the storyalso entered Persian literature throughpseudo-Callisthenes' novel on Alexan¬der the Great

Qassim al-sorur wa'ayn al-hayat isanother tale put into verse by Onsori.It has never been clearly establishedwhether the original was written byOnsori or by al-Biruni, but neitherversion exists today.

"Urmasdyar and Mehryar" is an oldstory adapted by al-Biruni; the namesindicate that it is certainly of Iranianorigin.

"The Two Idols of Bamian", a folk

tale adapted by al-Biruni, Is about twoBuddhist statues, a man and a woman,carved in the rock of a mountainside

at Bamian, near Balkh in northernAfghanistan. The statues still existand the local people, believing thatthey were two lovers who were turnedto stone, still recount their adventuresand the reason for their metamor¬

phosis. The story was also put Intoverse by Onsori, under the title "TheRed Idol and the White Idol". This

story, like that of "Dadmeh and Gera-midokht", has also disappeared. "Ni-nufar" (water Illy), the last of theseworks appears to have been a tale ofHindu origin.

The six titles clearly demonstrate al-Biruni's interest in legend;, it is unfor¬tunate that they should have beenlost, for they would have providedexcellent material for analysis. Fromthe narrative skill and descriptivepower al-Biruni displays in his variousworks, especially when dealing withhistorical or contemporary subjects,one can easily imagine the excellenceof the stories that have disappeared.

In short, in addition to some twelvethousand pages of erudite and scien¬tific writing, this prodigiously indus¬trious scholar produced a great numberof literary works: Arabic poetry,romances, etymology, literary criticism,

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

31

32

LOST HORIZONS (Continued)

history which in Islamic civilization isa part of literature.

It is interesting to note that bothArabic, the scientific language of Islam,and Persian, were greatly enriched bythe contributions of the major scholarsof Iranian origin and of the Islamiccivilization within the Iranian cultural

sphere living at the beginning of thiscivilization (between the late 8th cen¬tury and the end of the 12th century).

This was brought about firstly by theaddition of many words, phrases,explanations and expressions fromGreek, Syriac, Pahlavi and Hindu, witha few minor changes In pronunciation;secondly, by the translation of scien¬tific expressions and terminology; andfinally, by the invention of turns ofphrase or expressions using the rulesand the flexibility of Arabic and Persiangrammar.

The debating skill of such scholarsas al-Biruni, Avicenna, Suhrawadi,among others, contributed greatly tothe elucidation of many concepts in thefield of philosophy and disputation inthe Arabic and Persian languages.Al-Biruni was one of the master-

artisans of this enrichment.

What differentiates him especially ishis knowledge of Sanskrit and Syriac,Greek texts and ancient* Iranian sour¬

ces, by virtue of which he introduceda considerable number of words,

expressions and turns of phrase Intothe Arabic and Persian languages.

His Pharmacology gives ample evi¬dence of this. In this work each

drug is named ¡n Persian (Pahlavi),Arabic, Greek, Syriac and Sanskrit,and sometimes even in local dialects

of the Iranian plateau, together withdirections for its use. Its compositionand cases where its use would be

harmful, written in Arabic. This bookalone would suffice to establish al-Biruni's contribution to the enrichment

of Arabic (see following article).

The same considerations apply tothe only book of his which is writtenin Persian and which is still extant,

namely the Astrology, where histerminology shows extensive use ofSanskrit and Pahlavi sources.

Al-Biruni's literary work adds aparticularly engaging aspect to hiscomplex genius. It presents an In¬exhaustible field of linguistic research,which Iranologists have now begun toinvestigate.

At the start of the present centuryCarra de Vaux, the French orientalist,wrote in his basic study "Thinkers ofIslam": "Like other great thinkers ofthe more recent past, a Leonardo daVinci or a Leibniz, al-Biruni combinesthe most varied talents. Philosopher,historian, traveller, linguist, scholar andpoet, mathematician, astronomer andgeographer, he has left his mark in allthese spheres . . . spanning the gap oftime, he is a figure whose youthfulnessstrikes us today; it is as though hestands out and breaks away from hisown era and comes to meet us."

Zabihollah Safa

'FATHER' OF

ARABIC PHARMACY

IN MEDIEVAL

ISLAM

by Hakim Mohammed Said

I ORE than nine hundred

years have passed since al-Biruniwrote his Book on Pharmacy (the Kitabal-Saydanah, or Saydalah), a work thathas rightly earned him the title ofFather of Arabic Pharmacy in medievalIslam.

Today the science of medicine Ischaracterized by disciplines unknownin al-Biruni's age. A proper appraisalof al-Biruni's work can, therefore, onlybe made by referring to his age andits standards.

Lest It be understood that al-Biruni's

book is concerned with the aetiologyof diseases and their treatment, it mustbe made clear that this is by nomeans the case. In fact, it is atreatise on materia medica, patternedsomewhat on the Ist century A.D.treatise of the Greek physician Dios-corides, which lists 600 medicinalplants.

But al-Biruni sets forth five times

as many medicinal plants as Diosco-rides, although he makes the latter themain source on which to base his

discussion of the drugs. It has,however, been said that the descriptionof the drugs, given by Dioscorides, isso vague as to make most of them,with the exception of about a hundreddrugs, unidentifiable today. It is rather

HAKIM MOHAMMED SAID, a medical doctorof Pakistan, is president of the HamdardNational Foundation, Karachi. This founda¬tion, devoted to scientific and medicalresearch, has ¡ust published "Al-Biruni's Bookon Pharmacy and Materia Medica" (twovolumes, Karachi, 1973), the first translationinto English of the complete text of al-Blruni's-Pharmacology". Dr. Said was the organizer

of the AI-Birunl International Congress, heldin Karachi, last November.

interesting to see how al-Blruni over¬came the problem.

One of the advantages that al-Birunienjoyed was his command over bothPersian and Arabic and his own

Khwarizmian dialect. He lived on the

fringe of the Iranian mainland, and hadan intimate knowledge of Persiancustoms and traditions, and, since mostof his extant works are in Arabic, felteven more at home with the Arab

background, although he never visitedthe Arab part of the world.

The procedure that he commonlyadopts with regard to the descriptionof a drug is that he first discusses itunder its Arabic name, and thenexamines its equivalents in otherlanguages, finally establishing its iden¬tity. For example, if a drug is knownas hum al-majus in Arabic and arzadmaghushi in Syriac, the probability isthat it is the same drug, that is, theMagian plant, which is today knownby the botanical name of Ephedrapachyclada from which the alkaloid,ephedrin, is extracted.

Primarily a geodesist, geographer,mathematician and historian, during thecourse of his sojourn in Afghanistanand north India, he studied the customsof different people at close quarters.In short, he was a polymath who aimedat what is known in Arabic as takhrij(extraction of the essence). Onecannot say that he was as much ofa rationalist in science as the Egyptianscientist Ibn al-Haytham (he was not);nevertheless, he knows how to sift thegrain and separate it from the chaff.

One may smile today on readingthat, after the hatching of the eggsof the timsah (skink lizard), the off¬spring either make their way to theriver and become crocodiles, or remainon land and become skink lizards.

CONTINUED PAGE 34

A binomial method

of classifying plantsseven centuries before Linnaeus

Al-Biruni has rightlybeen called the Father

of Arab Pharmacy inmedieval Islam. In his

"Book on Pharmacyand Materia Medica",he laid down the credo

that pharmacy was anindependent entity frommedicine and "the first

step in the hierarchyof the health profes¬sions", a calling requir¬ing much study, obser¬vation and experimen¬tation. Right, a present-day apothecary of Fai-zabad (Afghanistan) inhis shop.

ARABIC PHARMACY (Continued)

But al-Biruni who had never been to

Egypt, to which the skink lizard Isindigenous, describes what he hasbeen told by the earlier masters, and,after describing this, he comes to theecology of the skink lizard, how it isobtained, its medicinal usages,, andsubstitutes.

There are also priceless gems ofinformation scattered throughout thetext of the Kitab al-Saydanah. Al-Biruni's is among the first detaileddescriptions of tea, telling us that teawas taxed in China (see Anthologypage 22). His is the first descriptionof the plant, faghirah (Zanthoxyllumspecies) which he describes as coming

from Sufalah, the present-day SanglaHill in Pakistan. This shows how thehorizon of the Arabic materia medica

was widening to embrace new drugsfrom the Indo-Paklstan Subcontinent,Iran, Afghanistan, and other regions.It amply shows, too, that what he waswriting was not merely a piece ofcompilation but bears the stamp of anoriginal mind.

Let us give a concrete example ofhis approach. The winter truffle isknown in Arabic as urjun qabal, andfaswat al-dab. While describing thisvariety of the mushroom, al-Blruni says:

"When tender, fresh, and lush, It is

cooked for food as any other ediblemushroom. But when it dries, the topscatters away leaving what looks likethe Ceylon cornet tree which givesthe mushroom its name ... It shoots

out of the ground In a rectangularshape, like a white stick with a top . . ."

Maimonides, the famous Jewishphilosopher and rabbi, wrote hisExegesis of Drugs much later thanal-Biruni. He holds Usan al-kalb (thehound's tongue) to be lisan al-hamal(Plantago major), belonging to thePlantaginaceae family. Al-Biruni, onthe other hand, holds It to be aCynoglossum species, and he iscorrect, for the name given by him is

34

*\j/$r*',l*r

c

The illustrations on these pages are taken from a 15th century Persian manuscriptof a work by the Greek physician Dioscorides (1st century A.D.) on the healingqualities of plants. The Persian text of this bilingual (Arabic-Persian) manuscriptis richly illustrated with drawings of animals and plants, rendered with a grace andin colours typical of Persian art, though sometimes scientific accuracy gives wayto poetic fancy. Above stylized drawings of two medicinal plants: the bitter-sweetnightshade (top) a climbing plant with red berries; the highly poisonous henbane(below). Its analgesic qualities were well known to al-Biruni, who wrote: "It is anemollient for earaches and, with vinegar and rose oil, relieves toothache. Similarly,its seeds and root, cooked in vinegar or oil, act as analgesics for the pains descri¬bed above. ..Excessive eating of its leaves results in the loss of senses..." Accordingto Avicenna, "those who eat henbane begin to bray like a donkey and whinny likeahorse." Left, from the same 15th century Persian manuscript, a treatment forcow-buffaloes suffering from a skin disease: to purify the air, incense is burned ina perforated vessel.

Photos Roland and Sabrina Michaud, Topkapl Museum library. Istanbul, Turkey

a direct translation of the Greek word.

Although he did not know Latin forhe always equates Rome with theByzantine Empire and Greek, al-Biruni's transcription of Greek namesis generally scrupulously correct.

Al-Biruni's book of pharmacy offersa view of several new tendencies which

were crystallizing during the 10th-11th century Muslim world:

The vague notion of the binomialnotation which is at the very heart ofthe Linnaean system. For example, inthe Linnaean notation a species isdescribed by means of its genus andits specific characteristic, after thename of the discoverer, or its location,e.g., Rosa damascena (that is, thedamask rose of Damascus). In asimilar manner, al-Biruni describes themaiden-hair fern as sh'ar al-juyad (thehair of the giant). The description ofsh'ar al-juyad is followed by that ofsha'ar al-ghul, also a fern and knownas Onychlum japonicum in botanicalparlance. This tendency is rathervague in al-Blruni, but he resorts to itwherever possible.

The ethnography of plants. AIBiruni describes different plants andtheir occurrence In relation, whereverpossible, to the folklore associatedwith them. When he calls a certain

drug Roman or Persian, he does notmean that the drug is only In use Inthose countries but that It has

originated there.

Drug substitution. In this fieldal-Biruni has been very liberal Inproviding the names of substitutedrugs in case the drug described Isnot available. He had little leeway,however, for originality here since theworkings and active principles of drugsas we understand them today werenot known in his day, and even theapplication of some rule of thumbwould not have been possible.

A critical appraisal of al-Biruni'smateria medica would also demand an

examination of the shortcomings of thetreatise. Al-Biruni rarely describesthe Galenic properties of drugs andeven when he discusses poly-pharma¬ceuticals he hardly ever describes howthey are prepared.

Most of such descriptions are copiedfrom earlier texts. Sometimes he

simply indulges in etymological exer¬cises as In his descriptions of theexcreta of different animals. For

example, an Interesting account of thedolphin is given but not its medicinalrelevance. At times he is so irrelevant

that he makes one laugh. To quoteone such example, he says that theexcrement of the dog is ironicallycalled dawa-l-kabir (i.e. panacea) inPersian!

All the same, al-Blruni's materia

medica provides us with a picture ofthe expanding materia medica of thetime; of the Muslim approach In generalto science; how the Muslim Weltan-

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

ARABIC PHARMACY (Continued)

schauung was embracing an enlargingworld-picture supported by a Greekbase which was being gradually dugout and replaced by a new one; andas a bridgehead to modern science.

Perhaps the finest materia medicaof all times, ¡ami Mufradat al-Adwiyahwa'l Aghdhiyah (A Definitive Treatiseon Medicinal and Nutritional Simples)was written two hundred years afteral-Biruni's death by Diya al-Din IbnBaytar Mulaghi, one of the Hispano-Arabs, who quotes al-Biruni as one ofhis sources while elucidating the occur¬rence and properties of the drugs.

Since al-Biruni wrote or rather

dictated the book during the ebb-timeof his life, identical drugs are describedin different parts of the work. Also,while citing authorities, he does notgenerally specify the works from whichthe passages are taken. He seems tohave been a man of strong dislikes:Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is not mentionedat alll He also holds Abu Bakr Zaka-

riya al-Razi generally conceded to beone of the greatest clinicians of alltimes in scant respect, although hedraws upon him with recurring fre¬quency. Succeeding generations havenoted this fact, and one famoushistorian, Ibn abi 'Usaybi'ah, the Syrianchronicler, has particularly written onthis aspect of al-Biruni.

On the other hand, al-Biruni held theGreeks in the highest respect, althoughhis acquaintance was greater with theJatter-day masters. He mentions thephilosopher Theophrastus only oc¬casionally and Aristotle mostly whenreferring to the pseudo-Aristoteliantreatise on the magical and talismanicproperties of certain stones. Galen ismentioned comparatively less frequent¬ly, as he was more a physician thanan exponent of the materia medica.Occasionally al-Blruni commits real,howlers: thus ambrosia (ambrosiya) Isheld to be a plant)

But, as I have stated earlier, al-Biruni was not a physician; at best hecould be called a dilettante in so far

as medicine was concerned. And yet,when he describes the mandrake plant,the marking nut, balsam, the poppy,the Iris, the aloes, he writes with theease of a master. Very rarely in abook of materia medica have minerals

been described in such delightfuldetail, and here he is at both his worstand best. For he does his best to

extricate himself from the prison oftraditionalism and one can well see

that he goes more to the Greek sourceshere than to the oriental ones, tradition-fraught as the latter were.

Among the animal drugs, his des¬criptions of the civef cat and thebeaver are among the best. One alsogets the impression that, even whiletraversing the beaten path, al-Biruniwould like to ferret out something new,something not known to the ordinaryman in the street. ;

Thus the impression that this bookleaves, along with his other pieces likethe Qanun al-Mas'udi (his great work

on astronomy), the Kitab al-Hind (hisbook on India), and Athar al-Baqiyah(The Chronology of Ancient Nations) isthat of a man writing at breakneckspeed to communicate his own learningto his contemporaries and posterity,a fantastically industrious being, rathervain, egotistical, but self-effacing, everkeen to gain more and more know¬ledge, ready to scrutinize the differenthypotheses without bias and arrive athis own opinion; of a man eager toforswear narrow interests (he discardsPersian and accepts Arabic), not proneto glossing over the foibles of his ownpeople he makes a devastating attackon Dayfi Nam (Ten Names), the Persiansource book for medicinal synonymsand holds it to be far inferior to the

Syriac Christian, Yashaq Samahi orChahar Nam (Four Names); of a mandetermined to leave not a, singlemoment of his life go to waste.

It should also be noted, that his agewas one of' disquisitions, argumen¬tation, and internecine quarrels notonly between orthodoxy and hetero¬doxy but between the four orthodoxMuslim schools of jurisprudence. Al-Biruni seems to have been a liberalorthodox Muslim who did not find it

necessary to condemn the otherschools of thought. A greater exponentof live-and-let-live is rare to find. This

alone should be sufficient to place himamong the ranks of the really great.

Hakim Mohammed Said

Photo O Roland and Sabrina Michaud,

Topkapi Museum library, Istanbul, Turkey

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN. "Two forms appear,if it is cloven in the middle, and these are the male andfemale human shapes." This is part of a long descrip¬tion which al-Biruni gives of the mandrake root in histreatise on pharmacy. Photo left, a striking example ofthis strange root which might be taken for the statueof a man, his hands clasped. The soporofic propertiesof the mandrake have been known since ancient times.

It "brings about sleep after three to four hours",observes al-Biruni. Above, Muslim doctors examining amandrake. Dioscorides, surgeon to Nero, used the man¬drake as an anaesthetic in the 1st century A.D. ThePersian translation of his treatise contains an illustration

of the leaves and flowers of the plant (opposite page)which corresponds exactly with the description that "theflower resembles an actor's mask with a tongue protrud¬ing from the open mouth". In the Middle Ages, themandrake was the subject of countless legends: itwas supposed to grow under the gallows, to shriekwhen uprooted, and to be effective for all manner ofbeneficent or evil purposes. A lively and profitabletrade in imitation mandrake roots flourished for cen¬

turies, with any sort of root carved in a human shapebeing passed off as a mandrake. In fact the mandrakeis a close relative to the inoffensive and humble potato.

Photo © Gerard Dufresne, from the collection of Roger Caillots, Paris

FREE-WHEELING

PHILOSOPHERAl-Biruni was a model of the thinker

who could harmonize various forms

of knowledge without becoming

the slave to a particular method or school

It was a custom of Islamic

culture that thinkers and phi¬losophers delivered their dis¬courses leaning against apillar or a column of a mos¬que, surrounded by disciplesand students, as shown In thisillustration from an ancient

manuscript

Photo Bibliothèque Nationale,Pans, from "La Civilisation del'Islam Classique", by D. andJ. Sourdel (Ed. Arthaud, Paris)

by SeyyedHossein Nasr

I

38

N classical Islamic civiliza¬

tion the name "philosophy" (al-falsafahor al-hikmah) is reserved for a particu¬lar set of disciplines associated withvarious schools of "Islamic philoso¬phy".

SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR.

note, page 27.See biographical

Therefore the title of "philosopher"(al-faylasuf) is usually reserved forthose who are masters of the doctrines

of one of these "philosophical"schools. Considered in this light al-Biruni has never been classified byclassical authors as a "philosopher",nor associated with one of the well-

known schools of traditional Islamic

philosophy.

But If we understand philosophy inits more general sense as logical andrational discourse upon the nature ofthings, then al-Blruni must certainly beconsidered as a philosopher of note tobe studied for his significance In thegeneral context of Islamic Intellectual

history and also for the innate valueof his Intellectual vision.

Al-Biruni was a scientist, scholar,

compiler and philosopher for whomthe quest for knowledge was held asthe supreme goal of human life. Herespected knowledge in all its formsand hence sought It wherever and Inwhatever form possible. He saw Inknowledge an almost divine qualityvery much in conformity with the fun¬damental tenets of Islam.

Hence, al-Blrunl, with the universalvision and the remarkable intellectual

qualities which he possessed, turned toGreek as well as to Persian and Indian

sciences, to both the religious Islamic

sciences and the Intellectual ones. He

holds the rather unusual distinction of

being at once one of the greatest ma¬thematicians and historians of hu¬

manity. And he wrote in nearly everyfield, from astronomy to pharmacology.

But strangely enough, unlike his con¬temporary scientist Ibn al-Haytham, al-Biruni has not left behind independentphilosophical works of a systematicnature. The only exception among hisextant works is the Questions and

Answers exchanged with Avicenna (IbnSina), which deal with cosmological,physical and philosophical problems(see article page 27).

As for his lost works, he apparentlywrote several philosophical narratives,

including Qasim al-surur wa ayn alhaya and Ur-muzdvar wa Mihryarwhich if found would be very signifi¬cant, considering the importance ofthis kind of philosophical narrativeromance in the writings of Avicenna,Suhrawardi and many other Islamicphilosophers.

IIN order to understand al-

Biruni's philosophical thought, it istherefore necessary to turn to his other

writings dealing with history, geographyor even astronomy, for in nearly all ofthese works, one will find elements

dealing with philosophy, cosmologyand metaphysics interspersed withinthe main scientific or historical discus¬

sion at hand.

In his encyclopaedic work, India, notonly does al-Biruni describe Indiandoctrines, but often comments uponthem and offers his own metaphysicaland philosophical Ideas and interpre¬tations. In his Chronology of AncientNations profound observations aremade about the nature of time and

the cycles of human history as wellas the origin of the order observedIn nature. In The Determination of the

Co-ordinates of Cities, the origin ofscience and its classification are dis¬

cussed as are themes related to the

question of the origin and creationof the universe.

One could go on In the same veinwith his other writings. Moreover, thevery fact that he chose to translate

into Arabic a work on Indian yoga suchas the Patanjali Yoga shows his intenseinterest in metaphysical and spiritualmatters.

When all of these sources are ex¬tracted and studied it becomes clear

that al-Biruni was neither a follower,nor a member of any of the establishedphilosophical schools of his time.

The well known schools of "Islamic

philosophy" included the Peripatetic

(mashsha'i) (1), the Illuminationist (ish-raqi) (2), and also that of theology(kalam).

The most noteworthy aspect of al-Biruni's philosophical views is hisstrong and often original criticism ofAristotelian philosophy, which is re¬flected in the questions and answershe exchanged with Avicenna and hisstudent Abdallah al-Ma'sumi.

Al-Biruni thus belongs to a seriesof independent anti-Peripatetic thinkersof the early period of Islamic historywho were also scientists, such men as

Mohammed Ibn Zakariyya'al - Razi,whom al-Biruni both admired and cri¬

ticized.

Al-Biruni did not oppose all of theteachings of Peripatetic philosophy enbloc. Rather, basing himself on firmreligious faith in Islam on the one handand the tool of logic, rational analysisand observation on the other, he refut¬ed many of the theses of Peripateticphilosophy, such as the eternity of theworld and the possibility of indefinitedivision of matter.

What is important for an understand¬

ing of Islamic intellectual history isthat such a strong and rigorous criti¬cism of Peripatetic thought did notcome from a rationalist, as was to

happen from the end of the Middle

Ages to the 17th century in the West,but that it came from a man like al-Bi¬

runi who was deeply immersed in boththe life of faith and metaphysical andcosmological doctrines of Islam andother traditions.

It is of great significance for anunderstanding of the reason for thedifferent paths that Islamic and Chris¬tian civilization were to take at the end

of the Middle Ages that one of theforemost critics of the Aristotelian

world view in Islam should also be the

person who introduced the PatanjaliYoga to the Islamic world and one ofthe Muslim figures really well-versedIn the Hindu Vedanta philosophy.

In questions of cosmogony andcreation, al-Biruni rejected violently theIdea of the "eternity" of the world.Like the Islamic theologians, he heldthat to believe in the eternity of theworld is to negate the need for acause for the world and therefore to

negate indirectly Divine Unity, whichwas the principle most dear to him.

In fact the whole of al-Biruni's works

can be interpreted as a quest for therealization of unity in various forms ofknowledge and planes of existence. Itwas most of all with the aim of preserv-

(1) Muslim school of philosophy influencedby the philosophy of Aristotle.

(2) A philosophy with origins in AncientPersia, postulating inward spiritual enlighten¬ment and mystical experience, and contrast¬ing with the philosophy of Aristotle basedon reasoning and logical argument.

ing the inviolability of the doctrine ofunity that he criticized the Peripateticview of the eternity of the world In thesecond of the questions he posed toAvicenna.

The debate between al-Biruni and

Avicenna as well as al-Ma'sumi on this

subject concerns one of the most

important questions of Islamic philoso¬phy, namely the condition under whichsomething needs a cause. Al-Biruniidentified the idea of the eternity of theworld with its not being created. Forhim, in contrast to Avicenna, the "new¬

ness" of the universe implied its beingcreated and the denial of this "new¬

ness", or an acceptance that the worlddoes not have an origin in time, des¬troyed the conception of creation andultimately the unity of the Creator andhis power. Hence In other works suchas The Determination of the Co-ordi¬

nates of Cities he affirmed his belief

in the created nature of the world and

tried to provide both scientific andtheological reasons for it.

As a result of his vast and varied

study of nature, history and varioustraditional doctrines of time and of the

world, al-Biruni became clearly awareof the qualitative nature of time, of thefact that it is not uniformly stretchedout like a mathematical co-ordinate. He

also strongly denied the idea of uni-formitarianism so dear to modern geo¬logy and paleontology and providedboth scientific and philosophical argu¬ments to disprove it.

B^ OR al-Biruni time has acyclic nature, but not in the sense of

returning to the same point again,which is a metaphysical absurdity anda modern caricature of the real tradi¬

tional teachings. Rather, by " cyclic "al-Biruni understands qualitative chan¬ges and correspondences betweenvarious elements of time within each

cycle.

Without doubt his profound studyand intimate knowledge not only of theKoranic conception of time, which is

based on cycles of prophecy, but alsoof the teachings of the Puranas, the18 Hindu epics, and of many othertraditions on the meaning of time andhistory, helped al-Biruni develop per¬haps more profoundly than any otherIslamic philosopher and scientist the

meaning of qualified and cyclic timeand Its implications for the study ofnature and of man.

A basic aspect of al-Biruni's thought,which is closely related to histreatment of time, concerns the dev¬

elopment and becoming of things, OQwhich many have by mistake identified ***»with the modern theory of evolution,the latter being no more than a parody

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

FREE-WHEELING PHILOSOPHER (Continued)

40

of the traditional doctrine of grad¬ation (3).

Al-Blruni was fully aware of the longhistory of the earth, of the cataclysmswhich changed mountains Into seasand oceans into continents, of the

fact that certain species precededothers on earth and that each specieshas its own life cycle.

Pondering over the vast panoramaof nature In both time and space andthe teachings of various sacred writ¬ings on the creation and subsequenthistory of the Universe, al-Birunibecame aware of the basic principlethat the development and becoming ofthings in this world is the gradualunfolding and actualization of all thepossibilities that are inherent within

each being.

Nothing evolves from one form intoanother as a result of external addi¬

tions or accretions; rather whatever

transformation does take place is nomore than the manifestations of pos¬sibilities already present in that being.In the same way, what becomes mani-

(3) The principle that the universe is com¬posed of an infinite series of forms rangingin order from the barest type of existenceto ultimate perfection.

fested at a particular period of historyis no more than the unfolding of possi¬bilities inherent 'in that particular cycleof time.

This principle, which is one of thecornerstones of al-Biruni's thought andis a crystallization of well-known tradi¬tional doctrines, is applied by al-Blrunito his study of various domains ofnature, both animate and inanimate, as

well as to history and man.

Being an outstanding physicist, al-Biruni was deeply interested in thegeneral principles of natural philoso¬phy, in such questions as motion, timeand matter, as is again seen in hiscriticism of Aristotelian natural philoso¬phy presented in the series of ques¬tions and answers exchanged with Avi¬cenna.

As far as the nature of matter is

concerned, he sided with the Islamictheologians.

It is somewhat strange that a scien¬tist such as al-Biruni should supportthe view of the theologians concerningthe structure of matter, for usually theMuslim scientists believed in the conti¬

nuity of matter.

Of paramount importance for anunderstanding of al-Biruni's philosophi-

Photo H.W. Silvester © Rapho, Paris

cal ideas is his view of knowledge andthe methods used for Its attainment.

Al-Biruni held a view of knowledgewhich was at once dynamic and static,that Is, he believed clearly in thegradual development of particularforms of knowledge and at the sametime in the immutability of principialknowledge derived from revelation.

In addition to being the founder ofthe discipline of comparative religionor the history of religion he must alsobe considered as one of the founders

of the history of science. Yet, henever lost sight of immutable know¬ledge, which for him is always therevealed Scriptures and which providesthe matrix for all the human sciences

which change and develop.

Moreover, al-Biruni was the greatchampion of pure knowledge and itsvalue for the perfection of man. InIslam there has never been the idea

of "science for science's sake" as is

found in the West. But within the

context of Islamic civilization al-Biruni

emphasized the importance of pure

knowledge and the pursuit of know¬ledge for the sake of the perfectionof man as against those who stressedthe importance of its utility.

THE FIRST

MUSLIM

TO MAKE

A DEEP STUDY

OF HINDU

PHILOSOPHY

Left, 14th century Persian manuscript illus¬tration shows Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna

crossing the Ganges, the sacred river to whichIndians go on pilgrimage (above), to prayand meditate on its banks (opposite page).Al-Biruni studied India at first hand duringhis journeys in that country with SultanMahmud. This permitted him to write hismonumental book on India. The breadth of

vision and depth of understanding he revealedin this work were unprecedented in theMuslim world of his day. It remains a modelof exact observation and objective analysis.As George Sarton writes in his "Introductionto the History of Science" "He was the firstMuslim to make a deep study of Hindu philo¬sophy and became the most important linkbetween two great provinces of mankind,India and Islam."

Photo Edinburgh University library, U.K.

Of course, inasmuch as al-Biruni

spoke within the context of the tradi¬tional world view, his defence of pureknowledge and the view of those whoemphasized its utility met at thehighest level. For what can be more"useful" to man than the knowledgewhich is an adornment for his soul

and the means for Its attainment of

perfection?

Al-Biruni himself was aware of these

two poles and attitudes involved andin his own writings combined thepleasure aspect associated with theattainment of knowledge with its aspectof utility. For him the two were notcompletely divorced from each otherbut were complementary in the deep¬est sense.

Al-Blruni never became the slave of

a particular method nor accepted thatkind of tyranny of methodology charac¬teristic of so much of modern science.

He used different methods in different

sciences in conformity with the natureof the science in question. Where itwas necessary he used induction, orobservation, or experimentation, ordeduction or had recourse to intellec¬

tual Intuition.

He was the most exact of scientists

without ever being fooled into believingthat the methods of experimentalscience could he applied to the domainof religion or the sciences of man. Thatis why In al-Biruni, who in a sensesummarizes the whole history of Isla¬mic science, there is no single method,but methods for acquiring various

forms of knowledge in conformity withthe innate nature of the sciences in

question.

The basic significance of al-Blrunifor the modern world, and especially

the contemporary Islamic world, in fact,is not only in that he was the fatherof geodesy or that he weighed severalprecious stones and metals carefullyor even that he criticized Aristotelian

natural philosophy profoundly. It isabove all in his success in being an

outstanding scientist, in being scienti¬fic without being scientlstic. It is inbeing logical without losing sight of thespiritual empyrean, the knowledge ofwhich is not irrational nor illogical butunattainable through logic and reasonalone.

It is also in his remarkable sense of

discernment which was able to giveeach form of knowledge its due, toassign to each element the place to

which it belonged by nature, so thathe could practise mathematics withthe rigour of the greatest of mathema¬ticians and at the same time write of

human affairs with a vision that is

much more profound than the viewof those in the modern world who try

to ape the methods of the exact scien¬ces in the field of the humanities and

who do not possess a fraction ofal-Biruni's scientific knowledge.

Al-Biruni stands as the model of the

thinker who was able to harmonize

within his own intellectual vision

various forms of knowledge, from thesciences of nature to religion and phi¬losophy.

He also stands as proof that it is

possible within a traditional world-view to develop and even foundvarious branches of the sciences

without becoming enslaved by themand without falling under the deadlyinfluence of belief in the unilateral and

tyrannizing power of science so preva¬lent today, a belief whose end cannotbut be the stifling of the human spiritand the destruction of the natural envi¬

ronment which itself serves as support

for man's terrestrial journey.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

41

THE FORTRESS

OF NANDANA

In the Fortress of Nandana,

left, al-Biruni computed theradius and circumference of

the earth in the year 1018.The fortress stands in hillycountry about 100 kilometresfrom Islamabad, capital ofmodern Pakistan. Al-Biruni

explained his method In theMas'udic Canon. First he

calculated the height of aneighbouring peak, possiblythe one seen here behind

the fortress, then hemeasured the angle fromthe summit to the earth's

horizon. His results were

amazingly accurate. H emade the earth's radius

6,338.80 kilometres, com¬pared with today's meanfigure of 6,370.98 kilometresor 6,353.41 kilometres at thelatitude of Nandana, a dif¬ference of barely 15 km.

Pioneer of scientific observation (continue* »om page w

42

He wrote of the great geologicalchanges which had occurred in theremote past, long before the creationof man, and also during human exis¬tence, and some of his observationsare of great Interest. His discovery offossils of marine animals led him to

the conclusion that:

"Sea has turned into land and land

into sea; which changes, if they happenbefore the existence of man, are not

known, and if they took place later theyare not remembered because with the

length of time the record of eventsbreaks, especially if this happensgradually. This only a few can realize.

"This steppe of Arabia was at onetime sea, then was upturned so thatthe traces are still visible when wells

or ponds are dug, for they begin withlayers of dust, sand and pebbles, thenthere are found in the soii shells, glassand bones which cannot possibly besaid to have been buried there on

purpose. Nay, even stones arebrought up In which are embeddedshells, cowries and what Is called'fish-ears', sometimes well-preserved,or the hollows are there of their shapewhile the animal has decayed."

His interest next turned to the deter¬

mination of specific gravities, to vacuumtheory, the propagation of heat, thedilatation of bodies and the reflection

and refraction of light. He evenattempted to establish a tentativecomparison between the speeds oflight and sound.

In a totally different field, we findreferences in his works to the con

struction of a canal linking the Medi¬terranean and the Red Sea, to thedesalination of sea water and even to

the atomistic theories of DemocritusFurthermore, and it is in this respectthat he really emerges as a precursorof the great geniuses of the Renais¬sance and the Enlightenment, he alsoturned his attention to the human

sciences, in which his achievement isquite extraordinary for someone livingin an age which was certainly notnoted for its tolerance.

By virtue. of his official post at thecourt of Sultan Mahmud, al-Biruni wasrequired to take part in the Sultan'scampaigns. This did not prevent himrealizing his greatest wish, which wasto make contact with Indian thought.The long periods which he spent inIndia left an indelible impression uponhim, resulting in some of his mostremarkable works, in particular hisgreat work on India.

He went to India in the train of a

military conqueror, but it was in theguise of a simple student that heintroduced himself to his Indianmasters. He learned Sanskrit in order

to study Indian sacred writings andscientific texts. He was soon to be

regarded as the equal of his masters,both for his learning and for hisdesire to spread the knowledge hepossessed. His erstwhile teachersthus became his pupils and he taughtthem the elements of Islamic, Mani-chean, Christian, Mazdaist and Hebrewthought with such success that theygave him the affectionate sobriquet"Boundless Ocean".

Al-Biruni's profound study of theHindu religion enabled him to under¬take a comparative study of the majorreligions of his day, examining for thefirst time the ties which bind the Greek,Christian, Manichean, Jewish and Hindufaiths. He particularly stressed theHindu belief in the transmigration ofsouls.

His work on India is not, however,concerned solely with religion, but alsocontains chapters of the greatest valueon the Hindu social system and Indiangeography, mathematics and medicine.It is greatly to his credit that, unlikeso many of his contemporaries, he sawIndia as something more than merelya place where rich booty was to behad. His work is thus an objectiveand complete record of Hindu civi¬lization and a source-book for his

fellow-Muslims who had until then been

ignorant of Hindu culture.Al-Biruni's work thus presents us

with an outstanding example of anencyclopaedic mind ranging over boththe exact sciences and the human

sciences, and a model of respect forother people's manners, beliefs andcustoms in short, for other people'scultures. He teaches us tolerance

through understanding of other nations,and for this reason we respect al-Birunias he respected others. As he him¬self said:

"If you are to learn to like otherpeoples, learn their language and showrespect for their way of life fortheir customs, their thought and theirreligion."

Mohammed Salim-Atchekzal

u

z<

o

I

z<

ooí

oUJ

INTERNATIONAL

SOCIAL

SCIENCE

JOURNAL m

Challenged paradigmsin international relations

FIVE UNESCO

QUARTERLIESUNESCO

Annual subscription : 75 F Annual subscription : 45 F Annual subscription : 28 FSingle copy : 22 F Single copy : 14 F Single copy : 8.50 F

<>j«Mt t*" puMisW by line

\sWA

The role of museums

in today'sLatin America

CULTURES, a new international review, explores the world of artand culture, reports on recent cultural achievements and examinesthe role of cultural institutions in modern society.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL is an authoritativeinternational forum on topics of current significance in the socialsciences. Each number examines a single major issue extensively.

PROSPECTS studies timely and provocative questions facing educationtoday, particularly educational innovation and reform. Each issuepublishes a "dossier" on a major theme, challenging articles and newsfrom the world of education.

MUSEUM is a richly illustrated guide to the latest developments,techniques and exhibits in the world of museums. A review of primeimportance to all connected with museum work, it is also of interestto the layman.

IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON SOCIETY reports on science as a major

Annual subscription: 55 F Annual subscription : 28F force for social change. Articles by leading specialists discussSingle copy : 16 F Single copy : 8.50 F problems that affect the man in the street and society as a whole.

Where to renew your subscriptionand order other Unesco publications

Order from any bookseller or write direct tothe National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries notlisted, along with subscription rates in localcurrency, will be supplied on request.)

AUSTRALIA. Publications : Educational SuppliesPty. Ltd., P.O. Box 33, Brookvale, 2100, NSW; Perio¬dicals: Dominie Pty. Limited, Box 33, Post Office,Brookvale 2100, NSW. Sub-agent: United NationsAssociation of Australia, Victorian Division 5th floor,134/136 Flinders St., Melbourne (Victoria), 3000.

AUSTRIA. Verlag Georg Fromme & C*., Arbeiter¬gasse 1-7, 1051, Vienna.BELGIUM. "Unesco Courier"Dutch edition only: N.V. Handelmaatschappi) Keesing,Keesinglaan 2-18, 2100 Deurne-Antwerpen. Frenchedition and general Unesco publications agent: Jean deLannoy, 112, rue du Trône, Brussels 5. CCP 3380.00.

BURMA. Trade Corporation N* (9), 550-552 Mer¬chant Street, Rangoon. CANADA. InformationCanada, Ottawa, (Ont.). CYPRUS, MAM", ArchbishopMakarios 3rd Avenue, P. O. Box 1 722, Nicosia.CEZCHOSLOVAKIA. S.N.T.L., Spalena 51, Prague 1(permnent display); Zahramcni literatura, 11 SoukenickaPrague 1. For Slovakia only : Alfa Verlag - Publishers,Hurbanovo nam. 6, 893 31 Bratislava - CSSR. DEN¬MARK. Munksgaards Boghandel, 6, Nörregade, DK-1165, Copenhagen K. EGYPT (ARAB REPUBLICOF). National Centre for Unesco Publications, N* 1Talaat Harb Street, Tahrir Square, Cairo; LibrairieKasr El Nil, 38, rue Kasr El Nil, Cairo. ETHIOPIA.National Commission for Unesco, P.O. Box 2996, AddisAbaba. FINLAND, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, 2 Kes-kuskatu, Helsinki. FRANCE. Librairie de l'Unesco,7-9, place de Fontenoy, 75700-Pans, CCP. 12598-48.

GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REP. Deutscher Buch-

Export und Import Gmbh, Leninstrasse 1 6, 701 Leipzig.FED. REP. OF GERMANY For the Unesco Kurier

(German ed. only): Bahrenfelder-Chaussee 1 60, Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, CCP. 276650. For scientific maps only:GEO CENTER. D7 Stuttgart 80, Postfach 800830.Other publications: Verlag Dokumentation, Postfach 1 48,laiserstrasse 13, 8023 Munchen-Pullach. GHANA.Presbyterian Bookshop Depot Ltd., P.O. Box 195,Accra; Ghana Book Suppliers Ltd., P.O. Box 7869,Accra; The University Bookshop of Ghana, Accra;The University Bookshop of Cape Coast, The UniversityBookshop of Legon, P.O. Box 1, Legon. GREATBRITAIN. See United Kingdom. GREECE. Anglo-Hellenic Agency, 5, Koumpari Street Athens 138;

HONG-KONG. Swindon Book Co.. 13-15, LockRoad, Kowloon. HUNGARY. Akadémiai Kónyvesbolt,Váci u. 22, Budapest V; A.K.V. Konyvtarosok Boltia,Népkóztársaság utja 16, Budapest VI. ICELAND.Snaebiorn Jonsson & Co., H. F., Hafnarstraetl 9, Reykjavik.

INDIA. Orient Longman Ltd., Nicol Road, BallardEstate, Bombay 1 ; 17 Chittarani'an Avenue, Calcutta13; 36a, Anna Salai, Mount Road, Madras 2; B-3/7 AsafAh Road, New Delhi 1 ; Sub-Depots: Oxford Book& Stationery Co. 17 Park Street, Calcutta 16; andScindia House, New Delhi; Publications Section, Ministryof Education and Social Welfare, 72 Theatre CommunicationBuilding, Connaught Place, New Delhi 1. INDONESIA.Indira P.T., Jl. Dr. Sam Ratulangie 37, Jakarta. IRAN.Kharazmie Publishing and Distribution C'., 229 Danesh-gahe Street, Shah Avenue, P.O. Box 14-1486, Teheran.Iranian National Commission for Unesco, Avenue Iran-chahr Chômai! No 300, B.P. 1533, Teheran. IRAQ.McKenzie's Bookshop, Al-Rashid Street, Baghdad ;University Bookstore. University of Baghdad, P.O. Box75, Baghdad. IRELAND. The Educational Company ofIreland Ltd., Ballymount Road, Walklnstown, Dublin 12.ISRAEL. Emanuel Brown, formerly Blumstein's Booksto¬res, 35 Allenby Road and 48, Nachlat Benjamin Street,Tel-Aviv; 9, Shlomzion Hamalka Street Jerusalem.

JAMAICA. Sangster's Book Stores Ltd., P.O. Box366, 101 Water Lane, Kingston. JAPAN. MaruzenCo. Ltd., P.O. Box 5050, Tokyo International 100-31.

KENYA. The E.S.A. Ltd., P.O. Box 30167, Nairobi.KOREA. Korean National Commission for Unesco,

P.O. Box Central 64, Seoul. KUWAIT. The KuwaitBookshop Co., Ltd., P.O. Box 2942, Kuwait. LIBERIA.Cole and Yancy Bookshops Ltd., P.O. Box 286, Monrovia.

LIBYA. Agency for Development of Publication& Distribution, P.O. Box 34-35, Tripoli. LUXEM¬BOURG. Librairie Paul Brück, 22, Grand-Rue, Luxem¬bourg. MALAYSIA. Federal Publications Sdn. Bhd.,Balai Berita, 31, Jalan Riong, Kuala Lumpur. MALTA.Sapienza's Library, 26 Kingsway, Valletta. MAURI¬TIUS. Nalanda Company Ltd., 30, Bourbon Street,Port-Louis. MONACO. British Library, 30, Biddes Moulins, Monte-Carlo. NETHERLANDS. Forthe " Unesco Koerier " Dutch edition only : SystemenKeesing, Ruysdaelstraat 71-75, Amsterdam-1 007. Agentfor all Unesco publications : N. V. Martinus Nijhoff,Lange Voorhout, 9, The Hague. NETHERLANDSANTILLES. G. C. T. Van Dorp & Co. (Ned Ant.). N.V.,Willemstad, Curacao. N. A. NEW ZEALAND.Government Printing Office, Government Bookshopsat : Rutland Street, P.O. Box 5344, Auckland; 130,Oxford Terrace, P.O. Box 1721, Christchurch; AlmaStreet, P.O. Box 857 Hamilton; Princes Street, P.O.

Box 1104, Dunedin; Mulgrave Street, Private Bag,Wellington. NIGERIA The University Bookshopof Ife, The University Bookshop of Ibadan, P.O. Box286; The University Bookshop of Nsukka; The UniversityBookshop of Lagos ; The Ahmadu Bello University Book¬shop of Zaria. NORWAY. All publications : JohanGrundt Tanum (Booksellers) Karl Johans gate 41/43,Oslo 1. For Unesco Courier only: A.S. Narvesens Littera-turtjeneste, Box 6125, Oslo 6. PAKISTAN. TheWest-Pak Publishing Co. Ltd., Unesco PublicationsHouse, P.O. Box 374 G.P.O., Lahore; Showrooms:Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, and 57-58 Murree Highway,G/6-1, Islamabad. Pakistan Publications Bookshop,Sarwar Road, Rawalpindi. Mirza Book Agency 65 ShahrahQuaid-e-azam, P.O. Box N' 729, Lahore-3 PHILIP.PINES. The Modern Book Co., 926 Rizal Avenue,P.O. Box 632, Manila D-404. POLAND. All publica¬tions : ORWN PAN Palac Kultury i Nauki, Warsaw.For the Unesco Courier only : RUCH, ul. Wronia, 23,Warsaw 10. PORTUGAL Dias & Andrade Ltda,Livrana Portugal, rua do Carmo 70, Lisbon. SINGA¬PORE. Federal Publications Sdn Bhd., Times House,River Valley Road, Singapore 9. SOUTHERN RHO¬DESIA. Textbook Sales (PVT) Ltd., 67 Union Avenue,Salisbury. SRI LANKA. Lake House Bookshop,100 Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawata P.O.B. 244Colombo 2. SUDAN. AI Bashir Bookshop, P.O.Box 1118, Khartoum. SWEDEN. All publications:A/B CE. Fritzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, Fredsgatan 2,Box 16356, 10327 Stockholm 16. For the UnescoCourier: Svenska FN-Förbundet, Skolgrànd 2, Box 1 5050 S- 104 65. Stockholm. SWITZERLAND. Allpublications : Europa Verlag, 5 Ramistrasse, Zurich.Librairie Payot, rue Grenus 6, 1211, Geneva 11, CCP.12-236. TANZANIA. Dar-es-Salaam Bookshop,P.O.B. 9030 Dar-es-Salaam. THAILAND. SuksapanPanit, Mansion 9, Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangkok.TURKEY. Librairie Hachette, 469 Istiklal Caddesi,Beyoglu, Istanbul. UGANDA. Uganda Bookshop,P.O. Box 145, Kampala. SOUTH AFRICA. Allpublications: Van Schaik's Bookstore (Pty). Ltd., LibriBuilding, Church Street, P.O. Box 724, Pretoria. Forthe Unesco Courier (single copies) only: Central NewsAgency P.O. Box 1033, Johannesburg. UNITED KING¬DOM. H.M. Stationery Office, P.O. Box 569, London,S.E.I., and Government Bookshops In London, Edinburgh,Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol.UNITED STATES. Unesco Publications Center, P.O.Box 433, New York, N.Y. 10016. U.S.S.R. Mezhdu-narodnaja Kniga, Moscow. G-200. YUGOSLAVIA.Jugoslovensita Knjiga, Terazije, 27, Belgrade; DrzavnaZalozba Slovemje Mestni Trg. 26, Ljubljana-

m

m

#* **

. i

.V-V"

a*1

'

' '^

íátfSfe*-

Ancient splendours of GhaznaGhazna (in present-day Afghanistan) was one of Asia'smost splendid cities in the 10th century. It was thecapital and cradle of the Ghaznavid dynasty which ruledfrom the frontiers of Mesopotamia to the Ganges river.Al-Biruni, the great Muslim scientist and philosopher,lived at Ghazna most of the time from 1017 until hisdeath about 1048 A.D. Here he wrote some of his mostfamous works, including his encyclopaedic study onIndia. The Mongol invasion of 1221 destroyed most ofGhazna, sparing only two minarets and a palace, todayin ruins. This star-shaped tower of burnt brick, 43 metreshigh and decorated with Arabic inscriptions, is the baseof one of the minarets; it was once topped by a cylindricalupper tower (see also page 18).

Photo © Dominique Lacarrière, Paris