Extraordinary Arab astronomer, mathematician, physicist, physician, geographer, geologist and historian born where the city of Biruni is currently located, in his honor, near Kath, then capital of the principality of Khwarazm, region of the Aral Sea and today called Kara-Kalpakskaya, in Uzbekistan, considered one of the greatest scientists of all times. He was educated at Kath and studied under the famous astronomer and mathematician Abu Nasr Mansur. He studied Arabic, Islamic law, and various branches of knowledge and also learned Greek, Syrian and Sanskrit, which was it was fundamental for him to reach the existing knowledge and develop his innovative and original scientific work.
Of Greek culture and Muslim thought, he was a contemporary of Ibn Sina, the Avicenna (980-1037), maintained with this great and famous physicist Arabic intense correspondence and both, together with other Muslim scientists, became responsible for the basis of science. Modern. An indefatigable traveler in search of knowledge, he acquired great prestige with Mahmood Gahznavi (? -1030), a famous Muslim king who also ruled India, and his son, Sultan Mas'ud, who became he became his friend and protector and took him with him several times on his travels through the interior of the parents.
In the eastern nation, he traveled to many places for about 20 years and studied philosophy, mathematics, geography and Hindu religion, especially the Panditas, and brought them the scientific and philosophical knowledge of the Greeks and Muslims. He wrote essentially about mathematics, but also extensively about the history of science in the Hellenic world, about physics, astronomy, especially about the sun and its movements. One of his first most important books was Al-Athar al-Baqiyah fi Qanun al-Kaliyah (~1000), on ancient history, astronomy and geography, translated (1888) by the professor and expert in ancient translations at the Royal University of Berlin, Edward Carl Sachau.
His book Al-Tafhim-li-Awail Sina’at al-Tanjim (1029), in which he presented works on mathematics and astronomy, was translated by Emeritus Professor of Biology at University of Toronto, Robert Ramsay Wright (1853-1933), London, as Book of Instructions in the Elements of the Art of Astrology and published by Luzac & Co. (1934). Upon his return from India, he wrote his famous book Al-Qanun Al-Masudi Fi Al-Hai’a Wa Al-Nujum (1030), dedicated to Sultan Mas'ud, where he discussed several theorems of trigonometry, astronomy, motions of the sun, moon, and planets, and a collection of twenty-three observations from equinoxes. In Kitab al-Hind, also known as the Book of India, he detailed life in India, its religions, languages and cultures, and many other geographical notes, going down to details such as stating that the Hindu valley must have been an ancient sea basin filled with deposits alluvial.
With these publications he made the Hindu mathematics and culture to become popular among the Arabs and to reach our time. A critical thinker, he also wrote another historical work: Siddhantas. He translated two books from Sanskrit into Arabic, Patanjal and Sakaya, where the first dealt with accounts of experiences after death, and the second on the creation of things and their types. Another well-known book of his authorship was Kitab-al-Saidana, on Arab and Indian medicine. He released studies of an eclipse of the sun that he observed in Lamghan, a valley surrounded by mountains between the cities of Kandahar and Kabul (1019). He also observed and wrote about a lunar eclipse observed at Ghazna, then India, and provided precise details of the altitude of the best-known stars at that time.
He argued, without definitive conclusions, that the Earth revolved around its axis, calculating latitudes and longitudes. He described the Milky Way as a collection of numerous cloudy star fragments. He pioneered elaborate experiments relating to astronomical phenomena, claimed that the speed of light was many times greater than the speed of sound and contributed to studies on the strength of gravity. In physics he developed studies on elements and compounds, metals and precious stones, and made determinations of the specific weight of many of them. In mathematics he pioneered the study of angles and trigonometry, worked with shadows and diameters, and developed a method for tripartite angle.
In geology and geography, he contributed to the knowledge of geological eruptions and metallurgy. He discovered seven different ways to locate the north and south direction and created mathematical techniques to accurately determine the beginnings of seasons. In the natural sciences he explained the functioning of natural springs and artesian wells through the principle of the communicating vessels and found that the flowers have 3, 4, 5, 6, or 18 petals, although never seven or nine.
He was even responsible for the invention of some astronomy instruments and the publication of manuals on the astrolabe and a type of mechanical calendar. He died in Ghazna, today Ghazni, Afghanistan. He was an exponential figure in the Golden Age of Islamic Science and also left a reputation as an excellent teacher or teacher par excellence. It is also said that he never worked to gain fame, authority, or material gains, and preached to serve knowledge for the sake of knowledge, not for money.
(Picture copied from the TURNBULL WWW SERVER website:
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/)
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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