Birth: Al-Biruni, Muhammad ibn Ahmad

All stops in this story

1. Birth: Al-Biruni, Muhammad ibn Ahmad — 973 CE · 362 AH

   Born in Kath, the old city of Khwarazm. One of the leading astronomers, mathematicians, geographers and historians of his age.

2. Al-Biruni takes refuge at Bukhara — c. 997 CE · c. 387 AH†

   When civil war broke out in Khwārezm about 996–998, al-Bīrūnī fled to the Sāmānid capital Bukhara seeking patronage .

3. Al-Biruni at Qābūs's court, Gurgān — c. 1000 CE · c. 390 AH†

   At Gurgān near the Caspian al-Bīrūnī joined Qābūs ibn Voshmgīr's court, met Ibn Sīnā there and exchanged a sharp philosophical correspondence with him, and dedicated his Chronology of Ancient Nations to Qābūs .

4. Maḥmūd takes al-Bīrūnī to Ghazna — c. 1017 CE · c. 408 AH†

   Sultan Maḥmūd made Ghazna his capital in 998 and summoned al-Bīrūnī and Avicenna to his court; Avicenna escaped, but al-Bīrūnī lived at Ghazna the rest of his life apart from Maḥmūd's campaigns into northern India .

5. The Masʿūdic Canon dedicated — c. 1030 CE · c. 421 AH†

   Al-Bīrūnī dedicated the Masʿūdic Canon — his encyclopaedic astronomical work gathering and updating Ptolemy's Almagest and Handy Tables with original contributions — to Masʿūd, son of Maḥmūd of Ghazna .

6. The book on India composed — c. 1030 CE · c. 421 AH†

   At Ghazna al-Bīrūnī composed Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind — Verifying All That the Indians Recount — gathering what he had observed on Maḥmūd's Indian campaigns of its sciences, religion, literature and customs .

7. Death: Al-Biruni, Muhammad ibn Ahmad — 1051 CE · 442 AH

   Born in Kath, the old city of Khwarazm. One of the leading astronomers, mathematicians, geographers and historians of his age.