Image name	Iran Biruni.jpg
Name	Al-Birunī (البیرونی)Alberonius
Fullname	Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Birunī
Birth date	September 5, 973
Birth place	Khwarazm, Samanid Persia
Death date	December 15, 1048
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Region	Persia, Muslim world
Religion	Nominaly Shiite but known to incline toward Agnosticism
Main interests	Physics, anthropology, comparative sociology, astronomy, astrology, chemistry, history, geography, mathematics, medicine, psychology, philosophy, theology
Notable ideas	Founder of anthropology and Indology
Major works	Ta'rikh al-Hind, The Mas'udi Canon, Understanding Astrology
Influences	Aristotle, Ptolemy, Aryabhata, Muhammad, Brahmagupta, Rhazes, al-Sijzi, Abu Nasr Mansur, Avicenna
Influenced	Al-Sijzi, Avicenna, Omar Khayyam, al-Khazini, Zakariya al-Qazwini, Maragha observatory, Islamic science, Islamic philosophy

Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm [now in Uzbekistan, historically a part of Greater Iran], died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni [now in Afghanistan]), known as Alberonius in Latin, was a Persian Muslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century.

Biruni was a polymath with an interest in various practical and scholarly fields that relate to what nowadays is described as physics, anthropology, comparative sociology, and has been described as the founder of Indology, and "the first anthropologist". introducing this method into mechanics or as "one of the great scientific minds in all history." The crater Al-Biruni on the Moon is named after him. Tashkent Technical University (formerly Tashkent Polytechnic Institute) is also named after Abu Rayhan al-Biruni and a university founded by Ahmad Shah Massoud in Kapisa is named after him.

Biography

He was born in Khwarazm, then part of the Samanid Empire (modern Khiva, Uzbekistan). He studied mathematics and astronomy under Abu Nasr Mansur.

He was a colleague of the fellow philosopher and physician Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), the historian, philosopher and ethicist Ibn Miskawayh, in a university and science center established by prince Abu al-Abbas Ma'mun Khawarazmshah. He also travelled to South Asia or Central Asia (modern day Afghanistan) with Mahmud of Ghazni (whose son and successor Masud was, however, his major patron), and accompanied him on his campaigns in India (in 1030), learning Indian languages, and studying the religion and philosophy of its people. There, he also wrote his Ta'rikh al-Hind ("Chronicles of India"). Biruni wrote his books in Arabic and Persian, and spoke Khwarezmian as his first language, though he knew no less than four other languages: Greek, Sanskrit, Syriac, and possibly Berber.

As a product of the medieval Middle East, Al-Biruni’s beginnings were not atypical from that of his surroundings. Born in 362/973 (AH/CE), recovered records from Al-Biruni’s own hand describes his origins as Tajik, or Iranian, although he was culturally and linguistically Persian. Al-Biruni was born in Birun, a suburb of the city of Kath, within the Khwariz region, present day Karakalpakistan. While Al-Biruni’s early life is largely a mystery, the extension of “Al-Biruni” onto his birth name of Abu L-Rayhan Muhammad B. Ahmad has given scholars a significant start to discovering more exact locations and experiences Al-Biruni may have had. No evidence of marriage or children have been found in Al-Biruni’s records. Al-Biruni was a man seemingly devoted to academia.

As mentioned before, Al-Biruni is quite an enigmatic figure, at least throughout his early years. Considering the time period and region Al-Biruni lived, it can be assumed that he received a maktab and madrasah education, traditional primary and secondary schooling of the Islamic Middle East at that time. 6 of his surviving works are on astronomy. His extant works include:

Critical study of what India says, whether accepted by reason or refused (Arabic تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة معقولة في العقل أم مرذولة), also known as the Indica - a compendium of India's religion and philosophy

The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology

The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries (Arabic الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية) - a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information.

The Mas'udi Canon (Persian قانون مسعودي) - an extensive encyclopedia on astronomy, geography, and engineering, named after Mas'ud, son of Mahmud of Ghazni, to whom he dedicated

Understanding Astrology (Arabic التفهيم لصناعة التنجيم) - a question and answer style book about mathematics and astronomy, in Arabic and Persian

Pharmacy - about drugs and medicines

Gems (Arabic الجماهر في معرفة الجواهر) about geology, minerals, and gems, dedicated to Mawdud son of Mas'ud

Astrolabe

A historical summary book

History of Mahmud of Ghazni and his father

History of Khawarazm

Philosophy of science

Scientific method

In early Islamic philosophy, Biruni discussed the philosophy of science and introduced an early scientific method in nearly every field of inquiry he studied. For example, in his treatise on mineralogy, Kitab al-Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones), he is "the most exact of experimental scientists", while in the introduction to his study of India, he declares that "to execute our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and develops comparative sociology as a scientific method in the field. He was also responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanics, and a pioneer of experimental psychology. He argued that if instruments produce random errors because of their imperfections or idiosyncratic qualities, then multiple observations must be taken, analyzed qualitatively, and on this basis, arrive at a "common-sense single value for the constant sought", whether an arithmetic mean or a "reliable estimate."

Natural philosophy

Biruni and Avicenna (Ibn Sina), who are regarded as two of the greatest polymaths in Persian history, were both colleagues and knew each other since the turn of the millennium. Biruni later engaged in a written debate with Avicenna, with Biruni criticizing the Peripatetic school for its adherence to Aristotelian physics and natural philosophy, while Avicenna and his student Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Ma'sumi respond to Biruni's criticisms in writing.

Biruni began the debate by asking Avicenna eighteen questions, ten of which were criticisms of Aristotle's On the Heavens, with his first question criticizing the Aristotelian theory of gravity for denying the existence of or gravity in the celestial spheres, and the Aristotelian notion of circular motion being an innate property of the heavenly bodies. Biruni's second question criticizes Aristotle's over-reliance on more ancient views concerning the heavens, while the third criticizes the Aristotelian view that space has only six directions. The fourth question deals with the continuity and discontinuity of physical bodies, while the fifth criticizes the Peripatetic denial of the possibility of there existing another world completely different from the world known to them. In his sixth question, Biruni rejects Aristotle's view on the celestial spheres having circular orbits rather than elliptic orbits. In his seventh question, he rejects Aristotle's notion that the motion of the heavens begins from the right side and from the east, while his eighth question concerns Aristotle's view on the fire element being spherical. The ninth question concerns the movement of heat, and the tenth question concerns the transformation of elements.

The eleventh question concerns the burning of bodies by radiation reflecting off a flask filled with water, and the twelfth concerns the natural tendency of the classical elements in their upward and downward movements. The thirteenth question deals with vision, while the fourteenth concerns habitation on different parts of Earth. His fifteenth question asks how two opposite squares in a square divided into four can be tangential, while the sixteenth question concerns vacuum. His seventeenth question asks "if things expand upon heating and contract upon cooling, why does a flask filled with water break when water freezes in it?" His eighteenth and final question concerns the observable phenomenon of ice floating on water.

After Avicenna responded to the questions, Biruni was unsatisfied with some of the answers and wrote back commenting on them, after which Avicenna's student Ahmad ibn 'Ali al-Ma'sumi wrote back on behalf of Avicenna.}}

Masudic Canon

In 1031, Biruni completed his extensive encyclopaedia Kitab al-Qanun al-Mas'udi (Latinized as Canon Mas’udicus). It was an extensive encyclopedia on astronomy, geography, and engineering, named after Mas'ud, son of Mahmud of Ghazni, to whom he dedicated the book.

Astronomy

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Will Durant wrote the following on al-Biruni's contributions to Islamic astronomy:

Astronomical observations

In the Masudic Canon,

Al-Biruni also introduced a new method of observation called the "three points observation". A later Muslim polymath astronomer, Taqi al-Din, described the three points as "two of them being in opposition in the ecliptic and the third in any desired place." Prior to al-Biruni, astronomers used the relatively inaccurate method of Hipparchus who used the intervals of seasons for calculating solar parameters. Al-Biruni's new "three points observation" was an important contribution to practical astronomy, and was still used six centuries later by Taqi al-Din, Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Copernicus to calculate the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit and the annual motion of the apogee.

In contrast to Ptolemy, who selected the observations which agreed with his theory and omitted the observations he was discarding, Biruni treated errors in a more scientific manner, providing details on all of his observations, regardless of whether he agreed with the results. He was also concerned with maintaining a high degree of accuracy when it came to rounding errors in calculations, and he always attempted to avoid the manipulation of observed empirical data. Biruni solved a complex geodesic equation in order to accurately compute the Earth's circumference, which were close to modern values of the Earth's circumference. John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson write in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

In the Masudic Canon, Biruni's estimate of 6,335.725 km for the Earth radius (originally stated as 12,851,369 cubits and 50'42") was only 36.211 km less than the modern value of 6,371.936 km at Nandana Fort's latitude (32º43' N), where his measurement was taken. In contrast to his Greek, Indian and Islamic predecessors who measured the Earth's circumference by sighting the Sun simultaneously from two different locations, Biruni developed a new method of using trigonometric calculations based on the angle between a plain and mountain top which yielded more accurate measurements of the Earth's circumference and made it possible for it to be measured by a single person from a single location. Biruni's method was intended to avoid "walking across hot, dusty deserts" and the idea came to him when he was on top of a tall mountain He also made use of algebra in his calculation.

$h\; =\; \backslash frac\{d\; \backslash \; tan\{\backslash theta\_1\}\; tan\; \{\backslash theta\_2\}\; \}\{tan\; \{\backslash theta\_2\}\; -\; tan\{\backslash theta\_1\}\; \}$

He then stood at the highest point of the mountain, where he measured the angle to the horizon using an astrolabe. while other writers have said that he hardly qualifies as an anthropologist in the conventional sense. He wrote detailed comparative studies on the anthropology of religions and cultures in the Middle East, Mediterranean and especially South Asia. Biruni's anthropology of religion was only possible for a scholar deeply immersed in the lore of other nations.

While living in Ghazna, Al-Biruni performed his first ethnographic fieldwork on the topic of Hinduism in India. Coming from an Islamic faith in a period of significant division between religions, specifically between monotheism and polytheism, Al-Biruni’s work as an objective observer of Hinduism in India is recognized as exceedingly progressive. Al-Biruni spent time in India researching culture, religion and language from 1017 until 1031, resulting in an ethnography, al-Hind, also translated as the Description of India. Within al-Hind, Al-Biruni does not pass judgment on the Indian culture or the Hindu faith, but rather speaks through them. Not only did Al-Biruni conduct what has been recognized as the first ethnographic fieldwork, he was also the first Muslim to study the Hindu tradition, developing an interest in religious coexistence. This interest and knowledge spanning multiple disciplines contributed to Al-Biruni’s cultural awareness, evident within al-Hind.

In regard to Al-Biruni’s impressive curriculum vitae, he has now been referred to as al-Ustadh or “the Master” among the multitude of disciplines he has influenced. Through this comprehensive and critical analysis of religion, Al-Biruni developed an anthropological methodology as a means of approaching the cultural issues surrounding Islam. Referring back to Al-Biruni’s literary work, al-Hind, in which comparative analysis opened many Muslim eyes to an unknown culture, one scholar suggests that “he (Al-Biruni) was probably Islamic civilization’s first cultural anthropologist." Religion and the Arts, an academic journal, recognizes Al-Biruni’s work as a “curious and intentionally comprehensive approach to gathering and analyzing.”

In the introduction to his Indica, Biruni himself writes that his intent behind the work was to engage dialogue between Islam and the Indian religions, particularly Hinduism as well as Buddhism. He writes:

Biruni also had an interest in studying Hermeticism and often criticized its religious views. He also compared Islam with pre-Islamic religions, and was willing to accept certain elements of pre-Islamic wisdom which would conform with his understanding of the Islamic spirit.

Biruni also compared Islam and Christianity, citing passages from the Qur'an and Bible which state that their followers should always speak the truth:

Historical method

In his Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li'l-Hind (Researches on India), he was the first to distinguish between the historical method and the scientific method.

Biology and evolution

In Chapter 47 of his India, entitled "On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata," Biruni attempted to give a naturalistic explanation as to why the struggles described in the Mahabharata "had to take place." He explains it using natural processes that include biological ideas related to evolution, which has led several scholars to compare his ideas to Darwinism and natural selection. One of these ideas corresponds to "the central idea of Malthus on the disproportion between the increase in the rates of reproduction and means of subsistence," as in the following statement:

He then applies this principle to living things:

Biruni then describes the idea of artificial selection:

Birune then applies this idea to nature, hence "some presentiment of Darwin's idea of natural selection might be detected" in the next paragraph by Biruni:

Geology

Among his writings on geology, Bīrūnī observed the geology of India and discovered that the Indian subcontinent was once a sea, hypothesizing that it became land through the drifting of alluvium. He wrote:

This is in agreement with the theory of the modern geological theory of continental drift, where the Indian subcontinent moved northwards and joined the Asian landmass, creating the Himalayas, and is still moving north-eastwards.

Theoretical astronomy

In 1030, Biruni discussed the Indian heliocentric theories of Aryabhata, Brahmagupta and Varahamihira in his Indica. He described Indian mathematics as a "mix of common pebbles and costly crystals". Biruni noted that the question of heliocentricity was a philosophical rather than a mathematical problem. Abu Said al-Sijzi, a contemporary of Biruni, suggested the possible heliocentric movement of the Earth around the Sun, which Biruni did not reject. Biruni agreed with the Earth's rotation about its own axis, and while he was initially neutral regarding the heliocentric and geocentric models, he considered heliocentrism to be a philosophical problem.

The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries

By the age of 27, in the year 1000, he had written a book called Chronology of Ancient Nations, also known as The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, which mainly dealt with chronology and referred to other works he had completed (now lost) that included one book about the astrolabe, one about the decimal system, four about astrology, and two about history.

History

He discussed his idea of history in The Chronology of the Ancient Nations, also known as The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries. It is a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information, exploring the customs and religions of different peoples. Completed in AD 1000 (AH 390/1), it is the first major work of Al-Biruni's, compiled in Gorgan, at the court of Qabus, when he was in his late twenties.

Islamic history

In The Chronology Of Ancient Nations, he refers to Ali as 'the Prince of the Believers'. He places great emphasis on the commemoration of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali going into detail about the event and rejects the hadith that promotes fasting on the day of Ashura. He also refers to the murderer of Ali as the cursed. He mentions the birth and death of the Caliphs, Shia Imams, Fatimah (daughter of Prophet Muhammad) and Khadija (Prophet Muhammad's wife).

Mathematical geography

Discussing the astrolabe, Al-Biruni considers the orthographic cylindrical projection as his own invention, expanding upon the work of Al-Saghani.

Biruni was regarded as the most skilled when it came to mapping cities and measuring the distances between them, which he did for many cities in the Middle East and western Indian subcontinent. He often combined astronomical readings and mathematical equations, in order to develop methods of pin-pointing locations by recording degrees of latitude and longitude. He also developed similar techniques when it came to measuring the heights of mountains, depths of valleys, and expanse of the horizon, in The Chronology of the Ancient Nations. In his book (asar el baghieh men ghoron khalieh) Biruni explains the reason of his writing, as was per question and request of an scholar to answer the difference that exist of the calendar in different culture and religion, he was asked to find out the basis of those early events in history which became the basis of calendar, and discrepancies that exist in an event itself from historical perspective. This is the book of days of happiness and difficult time of people in India, Arabia, Iran, Palestine, Egypt, among Persians, Romans, Jews, Christians and Zarathustrian from the dawn of history. His scientific research starts with the definition of start of the day and night from different perspectives; e.g.: cultural differences in what start first night (Arabs claiming), or day (Iranians and Romans), and astronomical and mathematical conventions that existed and compares to the religious/jurisprudence definition of day in different religion. In the historical events he starts with calendars and its origin at the dawn of humanity:

to answer who was Adam, how long ago he lived, when exactly he was born and compared him to other culture's perception on start of humanity (Mishe and Mishaneh in Persian mythology). He discusses the events that might happened for Noah the Arch to be likely a regional event and not a global event, and for his reasoning he tries to coincide the Noah's period with India and Iran' s period which no claim of such flooding event ever recorded. He concludes that the flooding event was large enough to remain in history but in a regional magnitude and not reaching a global level as is suggested in religious texts. He describes that Iranians consider the humanity started 12000 years ago, Zarathustra (Zartusht) was born 3000 years after first human was born and the first King was Kiomars. According to him from Kiomars to Alexander was 3258 years. He uses a complex method to correct the exact date of Alexander attack to Iran and development of Alexandrian calendar. He correctly calculated the time of Ashkanids to be 528 years, which he includes 80 years of Seleucids reign in Iran and not 258 years as Sassanid kings were claimed to be. The exact period from Alexander to Yazd gerd Sevom last king of Sassanid to be 942 years and 257 days. He concludes that at each period there should be an Adam and Eve for each ethnic group. He descibes the relationship of God and Devil in persian culture and humans responsibility to fight devil in favor of God started with Kiomars. In Jewish and Christian calendar the time from Adam (start of humanity) till Alexander was recorded as 3488 and 5180 years. The Jewish tradition was expecting Messiah to be born 1335 years after the Alexandrian calendar. The detail of this discrepancy was explained which reflect on his deep knowledge of religious traditions and theology. The time between Adam and Noah's event is said to be 1656 years in Thora, whereas in Christian Thora(old testament) is said to be 2242 years and in Jewish people of Samara (Samereh) is 1307 years. He discussed mystery people in history and religion such as Zolgharanein, who was he? And why his name was mentioned in Quran: was he Alexander or a person of Yemeni dynasty? and who was the Cyrus (kourosh), was he Keikavoos king, or Jamshid Shah or a military commander of Bahman or Gushtasb shah? He examined history of differnt kingdom, their history such as Soghodians, Eskandarieh, Yemeni, Turk of Ghoz, Turk of Khezer, china, ghonooj, habasheh ( ethipia), Nobeh, Romans, kaldani etc... . By observing, confronting the accounts and evidence from contenders, use of mathematics and astronomy to determine the timing of an event, comparing the map of sky from Greek, Indians, Iranians over 2000 to 3000 years time period and calculating the time passed to add and support his calculation. His knowledge of Jewish tradition, the time he spent with Jewish scholars to learn the events that is written in common Jewish history and other event not so popular in local Jewish history in Iran was extraordinary. One example is to determine the exact date of birth of Isa Massih (Jesus Christ) which at the end of borj hoot and start of borj soor which according to him was on Monday 25 Azar (Sagittarius) or December 16, 333 Alexandrian calendar. In all his description of events he compared different calendar existed at the time of the event, the position of stars and views of people from different religion and culture to exact the time of the event.

Book of Coordinates

Mathematical geography

In the Book of Coordinates, Biruni estimated the rate at which the Earth's rotation accelerates, the rate at which the Earth tilts, and the rate of lunar acceleration of the Moon. His calculations yield the "acceleration of the Earth's spin as -26.5 $\backslash pm$ 5.8 parts in 10⁹ per century" and the rate of change in the axial tilt as "-47.9 $\backslash pm$ 2.0 sec per century." He also calculated the Moon's lunar acceleration as "-46.4 $\backslash pm$ 6.0 sec per century."

Geology and paleontology

In his Book of Coordinates, where Biruni wrote on paleontology, he described the existence of shells and fossils in regions that once housed seas and later evolved into dry land. Based on this discovery, he realized that the Earth is constantly evolving. He thus viewed the Earth as a living entity, which was in agreement with his Islamic belief that nothing is eternal and opposed to the ancient Greek belief that the universe is eternal. He further proposed that the Earth had an age, but that its origin was too distant to measure.

Biruni writes the following on the geological changes on the surface of the Earth over a long period of time:

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As an example, he cites the 9th century Persian astronomer Abu'l Abbas al-Iranshahri who discovered the roots of a palm tree under dry land, to support his theory that sea turns into land and vice versa over a long period of time. He then writes:

Physics

Astrophysics and celestial mechanics

Biruni held that astronomy could generate its own astrophysics based on observations and mathematics, and that it does not need to import physical principles from philosophical physics, such as Aristotelian physics. In astrophysics and the celestial mechanics field of physics, Biruni described the Earth's gravitation as:

In the statics field of mechanics, the notion of specific gravity is defined and employed by Biruni in his Ayin-Akbari. Although this concept is implicit in Archimedes' work on hydrostatics, the term is not used or defined by Archimedes. Biruni measured the specific gravities of eighteen gemstones, and discovered that there is a correlation between the specific gravity of an object and the volume of water it displaces. He was also "the first in history to introduce checking tests in the practice of experiments". He measured the weights of various liquids, and recorded the differences in weight between freshwater and salt water, and between hot water and cold water.

During his experiments, he invented the conical measure, in order to find the ratio between the weight of a substance in air and the weight of water displaced, and to accurately measure the specific weights of the gemstones and their corresponding metals, which are very close to modern measurements.}}

In dynamics and kinematics, Biruni was the first to realize that acceleration is connected with non-uniform motion, which is part of Newton's second law of motion.

Other contributions in astronomy

Observational astronomy

Biruni was the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena. He also wrote an early treatise on the sextant.

He also invented an early hodometer, and the first mechanical lunisolar calendar computer which employed a gear train and eight gear-wheels. These were early examples of fixed-wired knowledge processing machines.

In his Exhaustive Treatise on Shadows, he explained the calculation of Salah prayer times according to the shadow cast by the gnomon of a sundial.

The first description of an "observation tube" is found in a work of Biruni, in a section "dedicated to verifying the presence of the new crescent on the horizon." Though these early observation tubes did not have lenses, they "enabled an observer to focus on a part of the sky by eliminating light interference." These observation tubes were later adopted in Latin-speaking Europe, where they influenced the development of the telescope.

Refutation of astrology

He made a semantic distinction between astronomy and astrology in one of his works, following an earlier Greek source. In a later work, he wrote a refutation of astrology. His reasons for refuting astrology included the methods used by astrologers being conjectural rather than empirical, and also due to the views of astrologers conflicting with orthodox Islam.

Theoretical astronomy

In his debate with Avicenna, Biruni criticized several of Aristotle's astronomical views, such as that heavenly bodies move in circular orbits. He also pointed out that the heavens could be elliptical rather than spherical.

Other contributions in Earth sciences

stamp commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī]]

Biruni made a number of contributions to the Earth sciences. In particular, he has made significant contributions to cartography, geodesy, geography, geology and mineralogy.

Cartography

By the age of 22, Biruni had written several short works, including a study of map projections, Cartography, which included a method for projecting a hemisphere on a plane. He introduced the use of three rectangular coordinates to define a point in three-dimensional space, and also developed ideas which are seen as an anticipation of the polar coordinate system. At the age of 17, Biruni calculated the latitude of Kath, Khwarazm, using the maximum altitude of the Sun.

Mineralogy

Al-Biruni introduced the scientific method into mineralogy in his Kitab al-Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones), where he was "the most exact of experimental scientists". The earliest documented description of khat also dates back to the Kitab al-Saidana, in which al-Bīrūnī wrote that khat is:

Chemistry

Along with al-Kindi and Avicenna, Biruni was one of the first chemists to reject the theory of the transmutation of metals supported by some alchemists.

Islamic law

In Islamic law and jurisprudence, Biruni understood natural law as the law of the jungle. He argued that the antagonism between human beings can only be overcome through a divine law, which he believed to have been sent through the prophets of Islam.

Islamic theology

In Islamic theology, it is uncertain whether Biruni was a follower of the orthodox Ash'ari school of Sunni Islam, He is also thought to have associated with Maturidi theologians and was sympathetic towards Ismailis. He was critical, however, of Mutazili theologians, particularly al-Jahiz and Zurqan, and he also criticized Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi's sympathy for Manichaeanism.

Linguistics

In linguistics, al-Biruni could speak, read and write in a number of different languages, including Persian, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit - where he became so proficient that the pandits called him "Vidya Sagar" meaning "Ocean of Learning- besides his native Khwarezmian language(an East Iranian languages). and could also speak some Hindi and Latin.

Mathematics

He made significant contributions to mathematics, especially in the fields of theoretical and practical arithmetic, summation of series, combinatorial analysis, the rule of three, irrational numbers, ratio theory, algebraic definitions, method of solving algebraic equations, geometry, and the development of Archimedes' theorems. However, his main mathematical contributions were in applied mathematics rather than pure mathematics. For example, he was responsible for the earliest known practical application of the law of sines, which he applied to his measurement of the Earth radius.

See also

Notes

Further reading

Encyclopedia Iranica, "BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN MOḤAMMAD b. Aḥmad "

Works online

(At Packard Institute)

Alberuni's India, in English

"On Stones": Biruni's work on geology, medical properties of gemstones full text version + comments

External links

Extensive biography on Biruni

Did Al-Biruni discover evolution by natural selection 800 years before Darwin?

Category:973 births Category:1048 deaths Category:10th-century mathematicians Category:11th-century mathematicians Category:11th-century historians Category:Chronologists Category:Encyclopedists Category:Shi'a Muslim scholars of Islam Category:Islamic astronomy Category:Islamic geography Category:Islamic mathematics Category:Muslim astrologers Category:Muslim philosophers Category:Persian astrologers Category:Persian astronomers Category:Persian mathematicians Category:Persian philosophers Category:Historiography of India Category:Clockmakers Category:Iranian Shi'a Muslims Category:Indologists Category:Alchemists

Name	Subramanian Swamy
Order1	Member of Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha), Union Cabinet Minister for Commerce & Law
Term start1	1989
Term end1	1991
Primeminister1	Chandrasekhar
Predecessor1	A. G. S. Ram Babu
Successor1	P. Mohan
Birth date	September 15, 1939
Nationality	Indian
Party	Janata Party
Religion	Hindu
Profession	economist, Politician
Spouse	Roxna

Dr. Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939 in Chennai, sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy) is a politician from India. He is also a trained economist.

Personal life

Subramanian Swamy has two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy and Suhasini Haider. Suhasini Haider is a journalist with the Indian television channel CNN-IBN.He is married to Dr. Roxna Swamy who is a Advocate of the Supreme Court in India.

Association with Harvard

Following his time at the Indian Statistical Institute, he was awarded a doctorate by Harvard University in 1964. For sometime, while completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked at the UN Secretariat in New York as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House, and as an assistant professor at the Harvard Economics department where he later became an Associate professor in 1969. Subsequently he has been regularly teaching in the rank of a full Professor at the Harvard Summer School. He is the chairman of SCMS, Cochin , a premier business institute in India. He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study of India and China and is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese (Hanyu) language.

Association with IITs

He was a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi from 1969. He was removed from the position by its board of Governors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late 1980s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position till 1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977–80), and on the Council of IITs (1980–82).

Political career

He is regarded as a proponent of Hindutva. He first came into spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposed in 1975. He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and was its president since 1990. He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the Parliament.

Swamy convinced Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to open the pilgrimage route to the Hindu's sacred Kailash Mansarovar through Tibet.He became the first Indian on the reopening to visit Kailash and Mansarovar in 1981.

He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations with China and Israel. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to the Hindu pilgrims from India. In 1990-1991, he was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the ministries of Commerce and Law and Justice.

During the Kuwait siege by Saddam Hussien, Dr.Swamy helped the refuelling of the American war planes in Indian soil.

He was also a member of the Planning Commission between 1990 and 1991. Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade (equivalent to the rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. Dr. Swamy has been subject to several defamation cases. He is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers.

In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata Party established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies of the ruling UPA.

He has played an important role in fighting for the cause of preventing the destruction of Rama Sethu bridge. He moved the Supreme Court of India and successfully obtained a stay for the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project at the final hours on August 31, 2007. The case is under hearing before the Supreme Court.

He has been a crusader for democratic and human rights, National Renaissance and Hindutva, fight against LTTE and terrorism and against corruption.

He has successfully fought and exposed scams of the people who have been in power without fear or favour and effectively used the Courts to expose the wrong doings. Although he is not a lawyer but argues the court cases / PIL himself.

His exposure on the 2 G scam led to the resignation of Telecom Minister Mr. a Raja in November 2010.

Most recently Dr. Swamy has been crusading for proper electoral governance in the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the Indian Elections. He has been one of the few petitioners, who petitioned the Indian Courts to look into serious electoral mis-management potential in the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) during the Indian Elections from 2001 through 2009. Following a preliminary hearing in the Delhi High Court in late 2009, the Chief Justice of the High Court admitted the matter for a full hearing in early 2010. Dr. Swamy argued that any electoral mechanism such as an EVM must provide full auditability, accountability and transparency and that the Indian Election Commission's current EVM has neither of the three. The matter is currently under consideration in the Indian Courts.

Stance against the LTTE

He is noted for his consistent stance against the LTTE, proscribed a terrorist organization by 31 countries (list), commenting:

His stance against the LTTE has had five successive Indian governments place him in the Z category of Indian security, with security cover of at least 22 personnel because of the high LTTE threat to his life. Eggs were thrown at him by a group of pro-LTTE lawyers. Violent clashes between the Tamil Nadu police and practicing lawyers occurred on 19 February 2009 in the Madras High Court premises.

Books

Dr. Subramanian Swamy is the author of numerous books and writes regularly in various journals and newspapers. Some of his books are :-

Economic Growth in China and India (1989)

The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: unanswered questions and unasked queries (2000)

Hindus Under Siege (2006)

Corruption and Corporate Goverance in India: Satyam, Spectrum, and Sundaram (2009)

His latest book “Economic Development and Reforms in India and China” is released in July 2010.

Notes

References

External links

Biography on Janta Party site

Kashmir Hindu Foundation interviews Subramaniam Swamy

Subramaniam Swamy's views on the influence of Hinduism

Subramaniam Swamy in Janata Party's website

An article by Dr. Subramanian Swamy on how to face defamation litigation

Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis - Subramanian Swamy

The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: unanswered questions and unasked queries

Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Indian economists Category:Tamil Nadu politicians Category:Members of Parliament from Maharashtra Category:6th Lok Sabha members Category:7th Lok Sabha members Category:Indian Hindus Category:People from Chennai Category:Maharashtra politicians Category:Indian Institute of Technology Delhi faculty

Honorific-prefix	Barrister
Name	Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan
Office	Ex-President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (Pakistan)
Succeeding
Predecessor	Munir A. Malik
Successor	Ali Ahmad Kurd
Order2
Office2
Term start2
Term end2
Vicepresident2
Viceprimeminister2
Deputy2
Lieutenant2
Monarch2
President2
Primeminister2
Governor2
Succeeding2
Predecessor2
Successor2
Constituency2
Majority2
Birth date	September 27, 1945
Birth place	Murree, Pakistan
Nationality	Pakistan
Party	Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
Otherparty
Spouse	Bushra Ahsan
Relations	Ahsan hails from Punjab's Waraich clan of jats.
Residence	Lahore, Pakistan
Profession	Barrister-at-Law / Politician
Religion	Islam

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan () (born 27 September 1945) is a Pakistani barrister and politician who served as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan

Early life and education

Aitzaz Ahsan was born in Murree, Rawalpindi District, Punjab in 1946 during British rule. After being educated at Aitchison College and the Government College, Lahore, Ahsan matriculated to Downing College, Cambridge to study law, and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1967.

Professional life

Political career

In 1975, Ahsan was elected to the Punjab Assembly after Chaudhry Anwar Samma, a member representing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was murdered. After his election, Ahsan was invited to join the cabinet and given the portfolio of information, planning and development. After the police opened fire on a rally of lawyers during the PNA demonstrations against the alleged rigging of elections by the PPP government in 1977, Ahsan resigned as a cabinet minister in protest, and was later expelled from the PPP.

, Ajmal Khattak, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Benazir Bhutto.)]]

As a lawyer

A Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and senior partner of the firm Aitzaz Ahsan & Associates Ahsan is a well respected Pakistani lawyer, consistently given the highest rank by Chambers and Partners ranking of legal professionals. He also made legal history of by having defended two Prime Ministers in the court of law. Having previously fought cases in defence of Benazir Bhutto in 2001 he took up a case in defence of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

During his most recent tenure as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan he was a member of the Standing Committee on Interior and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

Chief Justice case

Recently Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and his team consisting of Shahid Saeed, Gohar Khan and Nadeem Ahmed successfully represented Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry's case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan [PLD 2007 SC 578]. They were pitted against a team consisting of 16 senior lawyers representing the Federation in this misadventure. The hearing was being conducted by a full court headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, and the 13-member panel reinstated the Chief Justice declaring his suspension by Pervez Musharraf regime "illegal."

During and after Emergency

Aitzaz Ahsan was arrested soon after the declaration of emergency/martial law,. At the time he and his team [Shahid Saeed, Gohar Khan and Nadeem Ahmed] were arguing against the eligibility of General Musharraf to contest the 2007 Presidential Elections before a full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There have also been rumours that he is being kept in solitary confinement and being tortured. Recently, 33 US Senators wrote to President Musharraf to release Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan immediately, as he is widely respected all around the world. He withdrew his papers of nomination to run for the National Parliament, this in deference to National Lawyers' Convention decision to boycott elections under Mr. Musharraf. It has lifted his stature by putting the lawyers cause above his own.

Barrister Ahsan was succinct in his resolute to restore democracy and pre-emergency judiciary in Pakistan with peaceful resistance. He was rearrested during his three days reprieve for celebrating religious holiday; when he decided to offer prayers with Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry and was heading to Islamabad. He has served detention in his house for 90 days and has declared his detention as illegal. It is reported (Nawaiwaqt 19 Jan 2008), with a dour determination he refused to abandon restoration of judiciary movement and was reticent to negotiate when approached by Attorney General. His role in PPP after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto will be pivotal since he commands the respect of representatives of Punjab, the nations lawyers; elected President of Supreme Court Bar Association by an overwhelming majority, and public at large.

Aitzaz Ahsan, has been awarded the Asian Human Rights Defender Award by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) along with Munir A Malik (past President SCBA)(Dawn 23 Jan 2008). The annual Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs will be presented to Aitzaz Ahsan in asbentia as more than 5,000 lawyers gather for the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA). Freed for two days, Mr. Ahsan was rearrested for 30 days on 2 February 2008 before he was to board a flight to Sindh to offer his condolences to Benazir Bhutto's husband (Dawn 2 February 2008).

Literary contribution

He has also authored the book The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan and its Urdu translation, Sindh Sagar Aur Qyam-e-Pakistan which presents the cultural history of Pakistan.

He has also co-authored the book Divided by Democracy with Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics.

Honours

Aitzaz Ahsan has been admitted to an Honorary Fellowship at Downing College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. In an Internet poll of the US magazine Foreign Policy, Ahsan was voted one of the top 10 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008.

See also

Pakistan Bar Council (PBC)

Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBA)

Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim

References

External links

AitzazAhsan.com

New York Times story, Nov 2007

New York Times story, July 2007

2003 Interview

PILDAT profile

Read Columns for Aitzaz Ahsan at IBITIANS.com (Urdu)

Category:Old Aitchisonians Category:Pakistan Peoples Party politicians Category:Interior Ministers of Pakistan Category:Pakistani barristers Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the Inns of Court School of Law Category:Members of Gray's Inn Category:Pakistani politicians Category:Pakistani democracy activists Category:Jat people Category:Ravians Category:Punjabi people Category:1945 births Category:Living people