Selections from Alberuni's India

📖 Public Domain Classic — Islamic Golden Age

Description

Selections from Alberuni's India presents the observations of Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973–1048), one of the great polymaths of the Islamic Golden Age. Around 1030, after years of study among Sanskrit scholars, Biruni completed his landmark account of Indian religion, philosophy, science, and society — written with a comparative rigor and even-handedness centuries ahead of its time. This edition gathers eight of the most engaging chapters from Edward C. Sachau's 1888 English translation: Biruni's introduction to the challenges of studying India, the Hindu belief in God, the caste system, the origins of idol-worship, the Vedic and Puranic literature, Hindu writing and arithmetic, his skeptical survey of pseudo-sciences, and his geography of India's rivers and ocean. The complete work runs to two volumes and eighty chapters, much of it technical astronomical and calendrical material of primarily specialist interest; this edition focuses on the chapters of broadest interest to general readers.

Author & Genre

Author: Abu Rayhan al-Biruni
Genre: History / Comparative Religion / Islamic Golden Age Non-Fiction
Translator: Edward C. Sachau (1888)

"The Hindus, entirely differ from us in every respect, many a subject appearing intricate and obscure which would be perfectly clear if there were more connection between us."