Posted on: 22 December 2011

Discussion on AL-BIRUNI

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his eleventh-century book the India.

Born in around 973 in the central Asian region of Chorasmia, al-Biruni became an itinerant scholar of immense learning, a master of mathematics, medicine, astronomy and many languages. He corresponded with the age's greatest scientist, Avicenna, and made significant contributions to many fields of knowledge.

In 1017 al-Biruni became a member of the court of the ruler Mahmud of Ghazna. Over the course of the next thirteen years he wrote the India, a comprehensive account of Hindu culture which was the first book about India by a Muslim scholar. It contains detailed information about Hindu religion, science and everyday life which have caused some to call it the first work of anthropology.

With:
James Montgomery
Professor of Classical Arabic at the University of Cambridge

Hugh Kennedy
Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London

Amira Bennison
Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge

Listen to this discussion :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00smnlk


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Listen to this discussion : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00smnlk

great traveller..even ibn khuldun...

We owe him so much!

Nice! I have read Alberuni’s India, a translation in two volumes, by Edward Sachau (1910). You can download them, courtesy of Columbia University, from: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5949073_001/ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_5949073_002/index.html

Thank u Qamarji.

I like the link provided by Qamar Rehmani from the Columbia University collection. Since the book is quite voluminous, a Table of Contents is provided and one can download any specific chapter without having to flip through all the pages. RBSI: Is it possible that this pattern could be adopted for other books as well?

Definitely ! ...only if we can find it in the Colunbia University site. In fact we had already posted this link below the archive.org link of the book as an alternative.

Thank you, RBSI. It is quite cumbersome to flip through all the pages especially if the internet connection is slow. If the chapters could have independent entry, we would just open the relevant pages. My city computer is very high speed but the one in my country home is connected to a satellite and is somewhat slower. This has kept me from reading some of your interesting books (like Jauhar's book on Humayun). Thank you again.

Asad Ahmed : There is a solution for your problem. You could flip to the Contents page initially to find out the chapter you would like to read. You can then slide the 'hand icon' at the bottom of the screen to the right page. Better still...download the pdf book and read at your leisure.