History of Religions:
Bīrūnī is one of the most important Muslim authorities on the history of religion. Al-Biruni was a pioneer in the study of comparative religion. He studied Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and other religions. He treated religions objectively, striving to understand them on their own terms rather than trying to prove them wrong. His underlying concept was that all cultures are at least distant relatives of all other cultures because they are all human constructs.
Al-Biruni divides Hindus into an educated and an uneducated class. He describes the educated as monotheistic, believing that God is one, eternal and omnipotent, eschewing all forms of idol worship. He recognizes that uneducated Hindus worshipped a multiplicity of idols yet points out that even some Muslims (such as the Jabiriyya) have adopted anthropomorphic concepts of God. (Ataman, 2005)
Indology:
Biruni’s fame as an Indologist rests primarily on two texts. Al-Biruni wrote an encyclopedic work on India called “Tarikh Al-Hind” (History of India, also known as “Indica,” or simply “India”) in which he explored nearly every aspect of Indian life, including religion, history, geography, geology, science and mathematics. He explores religion within a rich cultural context. As an example of Al-Biruni’s analysis, is his summary of why many Hindus hate Muslims. He explains that Hinduism and Islam are totally different from each other. Moreover, Hindus in 11th century India considered all foreigners, not just Muslims, impure and refused to have any connection with them. Furthermore, when the Muslims entered India, the land had already been devastated by two previous invasions by the Sakas and the Hunas. Al-Biruni collected books and studied with Hindu scholars to become fluent in Sanskrit. He translated books both from Sanskrit to Arabic and vice versa.
Works:
Most of the works of Al-Biruni are in Arabic, although he wrote one of his masterpieces, the Kitab al-Tafhim, apparently in both Persian and Arabic, showing his mastery over both languages. Biruni’s catalogue of his own literary production up to his 65th lunar/63rd solar year (the end of 427/1036) lists 103 titles divided into 12 categories: astronomy, mathematical geography, mathematics, astrological aspects and transits, astronomical instruments, chronology, comets, an untitled category, astrology, anecdotes, religion and books of which he no longer possesses copies.
Persian work:
Although he preferred Arabic to Persian in scientific writing, his Persian version of the Al-Tafhim is one of the most important of the early works of science in the Persian language and is a rich source for Persian prose and lexicography. The book covers the Quadrivium in a detailed and skilled fashion.
In 1031, when he was around fifty-eight, al-Biruni left India and returned to Ghazna. He spent the rest of his life in Ghazna and passed away at the age of seventy-eight. In the intellectual history of Islam, the period from 973 to 1051 is known as the ‘Age of al-Biruni’.
***
Al-Bukhari (809-870): The life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad are an important source of inspiration, guidance and instruction for more than a billion Muslims across the globe today. The Arabic word Hadith refers to a ‘saying’ or ‘utterance’ of the Prophet. Muslims scrupulously emulate his deeds and actions (sunnah) in every sphere of their lives. In Islamic history, one man stands over and above all others when it comes to collecting, editing, analyzing and verifying the sayings and utterances of the Prophet. He is none other than Imam al-Bukhari.
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Mughirah ibn Bardizbah al-Bukhari was born in Bukhara, in Muslim Central Asia. Of Persian origin, al-Bukhari’s ancestors were farmers who were taken captive during the Muslim conquest of that region in the early days of Islam. Muhammad was the younger of two sons, and became well-known as al-Bukhari.
Al-Bukhari was evidently a gifted student who possessed a photographic memory and great analytical skills. After successfully completing his initial education at the age of twelve, al-Bukhari pursued advanced training in Islamic sciences and specialized in Hadith literature. In fact, he was barely twenty when he came to be recognized as one of the foremost scholars of Hadith in his locality.
After completing his higher education in Bukhara, al-Bukhari left his native city and went to Makkah, along with his mother and brother, to perform the sacred hajj (pilgrimage). From Makkah he travelled to other great centers of Islamic learning in Egypt, Syria and Iraq before settling in Basrah where he conducted advanced research in Hadith. During his sojourns he came into contact with some of the foremost Hadith scholars of his time, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Bakr ibn Abu Shaiba, Ishaq ibn Rahawaih, Ali ibn al-Madini and Yahya ibn Ma’in.
After rigorous and systematic investigation of the ahadith, the Muhaddithun (or ‘scholars of Hadith’) classified them into different categories such as sound (Sahih), good (hasan), recurrent (Mutawatir), solitary (ahad), weak (daeef), fabricated (maudu) and so on and so forth. Al-Bukhari not only mastered the science of Hadith, but also committed around half a million Hadith to memory. He ate most frugally, and led a very simple and austere lifestyle. After collecting more than half a million Hadith, he systematically investigated and examined them in order to ascertain their veracity.
Al-Bukhari composed his first book on Hadith during his stay in Madinah, when he was only eighteen. He contributed more to Islamic thought and scholarship than any other scholar of his generation. Of all his works, his most seminal contribution was Jami al-Sahih, better known as Sahih al-Bukhari. This anthology is today widely considered to be the most authentic book of Islamic teachings after the Holy Qur’an. Al-Bukhari sifted through more than half a million ahadith and chose only the most authentic ones for inclusion in his Jami al-Sahih, which consisted of a total of seven thousand, two hundred and twenty-two Prophetic narrations.
Al-Bukhari settled in a small town adjacent to his native Bukhara and passed away at the age of approximately sixty-one.
***
Al-Farabi (Al-Pharabius 870–950): was a rationalist philosopher, scientist, cosmologist, logician, musician and mathematician of the Islamic world, who attempted to describe, geometrically, the repeating patterns popular in Islamic decorative motifs. His book on the subject is titled Spiritual Crafts and Natural Secrets in the Details of Geometrical Figures.
Biography:
The sources for his life are scant which makes the reconstruction of his biography beyond a mere outline nearly impossible. The earliest and more reliable sources, i.e., those composed before the 6th/12th century. The sources prior to the 6th/12th century consist of: (1) an autobiographical passage by Farabi, preserved by Ibn Abī U
When major Arabic biographers decided to write comprehensive entries on Farabi in the 6th-7th/12th-13th centuries, there was very little specific information on hand; this allowed for their acceptance of invented stories about his life which range from benign extrapolation on the basis of some known details to tendentious reconstructions and legends. The sources from the 6th/12th century and later consist essentially of three biographical entries, all other extant reports on Farabi being either dependent on them or even later fabrications: 1) the Syrian tradition represented by Ibn Abī U