Who is Abu Rihan Al Bayrooni?

Before jumping to conclusions.. He is not a Terrorist.

Actually he is a Muslim polymath born in Khawarezm now Uzbekistan in the 11th century. He died and buried in Ghazni city - Afghanistan!

Afghanistan today is a center of national interest to the West.

Afghanistan yesterday was a safe haven to Osama Bin Laden and Taliban, who fought the Russians on behalf the Americans.

This is because before yesterday the Russians or the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan, whish was a center of national interest to them.

Before that the country was of national interest to the British Empire, the Persian Empire, the Mongols, the Macedonians etc..

Afghanistan was and still is considered an important Geo-strategic location, connecting Central Asia with East and West and an ancient focal point of trade routes and human migrations.

Al Bayrooni referred to Afghanistan as the land of various tribes living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River, which would be Sulaiman Mountains.

But all those tribes, empires, armies, left without any actual trace, and I am sure the present armies occupying Afghanistan and the around lands, will also leave without leaving any actual trace.

One of the most important traces left in Afghanistan long before it was a country with borders, was the trace of Al Bayrooni’s mind, that brilliant scholar who is buried in that land, and minds of his friends, teachers and students. Polymath(s) and scholars of multiple scientific fields such as:

Al Khawarizmi – Father of Algebra and Logarithm.

Al Afghani – A pioneer of Astronomy (The crater Alfraganus on the Moon is named after him).

Al Farabi – Father of Social Psychology.

Al Razi - Father of Pediatrics and the first physician to distinguish smallpox and measles through his clinical characterization of the two diseases.

Ibn Sina – Father of modern medicine, Founder of Unani medicine and a pioneer of physiological psychology, neuro-psychiatry, thought experiment, self-awareness and self-consciousness, experimental medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, clinical pharmacology and aromatherapy.

Ibn Al Haytham – Father of Optics and pioneer of eye surgery, visual system and visual perception.

Al Zahrawi – Father of modern surgery and a pioneer of neurosurgery, craniotomy, hematology and dental surgery.

Al Jazari – Father of Robotics and modern Engineering.

Ibn Al Nafis – Father of circulatory physiology and Founder of Nafisian anatomy, physiology, pulsology and sphygmology.

Ibn Hayan – Father of Chemistry.

Al Kindi – Founder of Environmentalism and a pioneer of psycho and music therapy.

And many many others, who put the basic roots of our modern science in all its different fields.

So the legacy of these lands is there....in the minds and genes of its brilliant sons and daughters.
Not in its Rich Lands or its Strategic Geography or the Silk Roads or the Link between Central Asia, East, West and South.

It is in genes and minds of the people there... Afghanistan and the "around countries"...including Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India up to China.

The real struggle is a struggle of minds....
But unfortunately the struggle of minds used and is still using different tools together with the military one.

The most vicious tool was and still is the tool of putting various ethnic and religious ideologies in negative confrontations.

But no army or conqueror or occupier was able to defeat Al Bayrooni , who is fighting them all from his grave.

His works are still the origins of many scientific discoveries and the best methods used in most scientific studies at modern worldwide universities.

Al Bayrooni is the Master of Physics, anthropology, comparative sociology, astronomy, astrology, chemistry, history, geography, mathematics, medicine, psychology, philosophy, and theology.
Actually the crater (Al Biruni) on the moon is named after him.

He was described as the founder of indology (indian studies) and the first anthropologist (social scientist).

He was also one of the first scholars to introduce the science of mineralogy, psychology and astronomy.

Al Bayrooni wrote a number of books on astrolabes, astrology, chronology, time and measurement, geography, mapping, history, pharmacology, meteorology, mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, mechanics, medicine, religion, philosophy, literary works, magic etc...

His book Kitab Al-Qanoon Al Masudi is an extensive encyclopaedia on astronomy, geography and engineering.

In this book he wrote about the function and uses of the astrolabe, the planisphere and the armillary sphere. He formulated astronomical tables and was the first to indicate that the Earth is round.

Al Bayrooni was also the first to notice the attraction of all things towards Earth.
He discovered the distance between Earth and Sun is larger than Ptolemy's estimate and introduced new techniques to measure the Earth and distances on it using triangulation.

Al Bayrooni found the radius of the Earth to be 6339.6 Km, a value not obtained in the West until the 16th century according to MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive.

He developed a sophisticated methodology for his anthropological studies; he was the first to distinguish between the historical method and the scientific method.

He realized that the Earth is constantly evolving, and described it as a living entity and had an age but its origin was too distant to measure.

Al Bayrooni was the first to apply experimental scientific methods to mechanics, especially the fields of statics and dynamics, particularly for determining specific weights, such as those based on the theory of balances and weighing.

His book The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries is a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information, exploring the customs and religions of different peoples.

As father of Indology, Al Bayrooni was the first to tackle the history of India without recording any political or military details... In his book Indica, he wrote more on India's cultural, scientific, social and religious history.

Al Bayrooni is described as one of the world's greatest scholars, where no history of mathematics, astronomy, geography, anthropology, religion etc... is complete without acknowledgment of his immense contribution.

He is considered as one of the outstanding minds of all times, distinguished to a remarkable degree by the essential qualities which have made possible both science and social studies.

Encyclopedias described him as "the demonstration of the universality and timelessness of a great mind".

It is said that "one could compile a long series of quotations from Al Bayrooni written more than a thousand years ago that anticipate supposedly modern intellectual attitudes and methods".

All invaders of Afghanistan and the around lands, were and are in genetic search for the minds of Al Bayrooni and the minds of his teachers, students, friends and their descendants...

No one and Nothing else.

However, the question remains....
Why?

Sami Cherkaoui