Abu Reikhan Muhammad Akhmad al-Beruniy

Abu Reikhan Muhammad Akhmad al-Beruniy

Presentation by Kosenko Viktor and Musajonova Feruzakhon

141-group

Plan:

• LIFE
• WORKS
• PHYSICS
• HISTORY OF RELLIGIONS
• LEGACY

Al-Biruni came from a highly cultured society known for its mathematical, scientific, astronomical, and astrological lore. In his various works, Al-Biruni shows interest in, and familiarity with, the cultures and sciences of the peoples who surrounded him. He shows profound and advanced knowledge of scientific subjects. His mind was precise and he was a close observer of nature. He studied the Hindu numeral system and showed how to determine latitude and longitude accurately. When he visited India and viewed the Indus Valley, Al-Biruni concluded that it was an ancient sea basin filled with alluvium. In many ways, he was ahead of his time.

LIFE

Abu Reikhan Muhammad Akhmad al-Beruniy (973-1048) was a great scientist of Khorezm a region adjoining the Aral Sea now known as Karakalpakstan.

Al-Beruniy is known under the name Alborona in Western Europe. European scientists believed he was a Spanish monk.

His most famous work India was written as a direct result of the studies he made while in that country. The India is a massive work covering many different aspects of the country. Al-Biruni describes the religion and philosophy of India, its caste system and marriage customs. He then studies the Indian systems of writing and numbers before going on to examine the geography of the country. The book also examines Indian astronomy, astrology and the calendar.

WORKS

Al-Beruniy was the author of more than 150 works. Approximately 30 of them remain today. Mostly his works are on mathematics and astronomy. The most significant, "Memorials to the Past Generations", is a chronology of the religious holidays of many nations, including the Khorezmians. It also deals with the basics of astronomy and astronomic instruments. He made the first semantic distinction between astronomy and astrology.

In his major astronomical work, the Mas'ud Canon, Biruni observed that, contrary to Ptolemy, the sun's apogee (highest point in the heavens) was mobile, not fixed. He wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, describing how to use it to tell the time and as a quadrant for surveying. One particular diagram of an eight geared device could be considered an ancestor of later Muslim astrolabes and clocks.

Al-Biruni was the person who first subdivided the hour sexagesimally into minutes, seconds, thirds and fourths in 1000 while discussing Jewish months.

Beruniy's work "Explanation of Acknowledged and Unacknowledged Indian Sciences by the Great Intellects", which is better known as "India" is a remarkable monument of science and culture. This work is a bona fide encyclopedia of the country. While living among the Indians, Al-Beruniy learned Sanskrit and obtained much information on ethnography, geography, biology, philology, history, and astronomy from Indian scientific sources. He included all this information in his book, "India". "India" was translated into many languages including Uzbek, Russian, French, and English. The treatise has been reprinted many times.

Biruni wrote a pharmacopoeia, the "Kitab al-saydala fi al-tibb" (Book on the Pharmacopoeia of Medicine). It lists synonyms for drug names in Syriac, Persian, Greek, Baluchi, Afghan, Kurdi, and some Indian languages.

Physics

Al-Biruni contributed to the introduction of the scientific method to medieval mechanics. He developed experimental methods to determine density, using a particular type of hydrostatic balance.