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Al-Biruni Book of Stones

Book Name: Book of Stones

Author: Al-Biruni

published: 1973

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Al-Biruni.Book of Stones.

The Persian scientist Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī introduced early scientific methods for several different fields of inquiry during the 1020s and 1030s. For example, in his treatise on mineralogy, Kitab al-Jamahir (Book of Precious Stones), al-Biruni 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 also developed the earliest experimental method for mechanics, and was one of the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.

Who was the first to make experiments related to astronomy? Most people would say Galileo, Ptolemy, or some scientist from the Renaissance. The real answer is Abu Raihan Mohammed Ibn Ahmad Al-Biruni. Born about five centuries before the Renaissance, he proved to be one of the best scientists of all times. At an early age his fame of scholarship went around and when Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi conquered Ural, Al-Biruni's homeland, he took al-Biruni along with him in his journeys to India several times and so he had the chance to travel all over India for a period of 20 years. Al-Biruni learned Hindu philosophy, mathematics, geography and religion from the Pandits to whom he taught Greek and Arabic science and philosophy. He wrote about his travels through India in his well-known book Kitab-al-Hind which gives a graphic account of the sub-continent.