Al-Biruni 973 – 1048
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, often counted among the greatest scientific minds in the history of the medieval world. He worked extensively in mathematics, astronomy, geography, mineralogy, history, linguistics, and comparative religion, and accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni's campaigns to the Indian subcontinent, where he composed his celebrated Indica, the most careful study of Indian thought, religion, and society produced anywhere before the modern period. He calculated the Earth's circumference to a high degree of accuracy and entertained the idea that the Earth might rotate on its axis.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Persian
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Islamic, Medieval
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Al-Biruni:
“We must distinguish between what we have seen and what we have heard.”
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Attributed to Al-Biruni:
“The Hindus differ from us in everything; we are dependent upon them, and they are independent of us.”
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Attributed to Al-Biruni:
“All theories about the world should be tested against observation.”
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Attributed to Al-Biruni:
“Geography is the science of the earth as the home of mankind.”
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Attributed to Al-Biruni:
“The variety of religions is itself an object of philosophical study.”