Al-Biruni
11th-century Persian scholar and polymath (973-1048) · Academics · Died at 75
Al-Biruni is read about 1,375 times a day, in 99 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 27 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?An 11th-century polymath who mapped the earth's radius, learned Sanskrit to decode Hindu philosophy, and wrote about foreign cultures with a precision rare for his era - or any other.
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About this person
Born around 973 in Khwarazm, al-Biruni moved through physics, mathematics, astronomy, and linguistics with equal command, funded by rulers who wanted his mind on their problems. He spoke Khwarezmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. In 1017, he traveled to the Indian subcontinent and produced Tārīkh al-Hind, a study of Hindu culture built on direct observation rather than hearsay. His scholarly neutrality earned him the title al-Ustadh - "The Master" - for an account of early 11th-century India that read more like fieldwork than verdict. He spent much of his later life in Ghazni, the Ghaznavid capital in what is now Afghanistan, and died around 1050.
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