Alberuni's India
Indica
Kitāb al-Hind
The cover of the english edition.
AuthorAl-Biruni
Original titleA Critical Study of Indian Doctrines, Whether Rationally Acceptable or Not
Refused (تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة مقبولة في العقل أو مرذولة);
Kitab al-Bīrūnī fī Taḥqīq mā li-al-Hind
TranslatorEduard Sachau
LanguageArabic
Subject
  • India
  • Culture
  • Religion
  • Hinduism
  • Indiology
  • History

Alberuni's India (Arabic: تحقيق ما للهند من مقولة مقبولة في العقل أو مرذولة, Taḥqīq mā li-l-hind min maqūla maqbūla fī l-ʿaql aw mardhūla, meaning: A Critical Study of Indian Doctrines, Whether Rationally Acceptable or Not) is a book written by Persian Polymath Al-Biruni about history and culture of India. This book was translated into German and afterward to English by Eduard Sachau.[1][2][3]

content

The first twelve chapters of Al-Hind provide an magisterial overview of Hindu concepts about God, creation, reincarnation, salvation, and idolatry. The Hindu approach to God, creation, and salvation is generously praised, comparing positively with concepts derived from ancient Greece and classical Islam (However, this is not true of metempsychosis).

In the seventh chapter we find Al-Biruni's longest and most documented assessment of Hindu beliefs.

Nearly two-thirds of the book (48 out of 80 chapters) reviews the achievements of Indian science in a number of areas.

The last seventeen chapters deal with ritual practices, mainly initiation and burial ceremonies but also mandatory sacrifices and rules of nutrition, fasting, pilgrimage and festival observance. [4]

The book does not limit itself to tedious documentation of battles because al-Biruni found social culture more important.

References

  1. ↑ Kūrush., Ṣafavī. Introduction to Linguistics History. Pazhvāk-i Kayvān. ISBN 978-964-8727-32-6.
  2. ↑ Kozah, Mario (20 October 2015). The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science: Al-Bīrūnī's Treatise on Yoga Psychology. BRILL. pp. 23–31. ISBN 978-90-04-30554-0. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Sunar, Lutfi (5 May 2016). Eurocentrism at the Margins: Encounters, Critics and Going Beyond. Routledge. pp. 88, 89. ISBN 978-1-317-13996-6. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Lawrence, .Bruce B (Jan 2000). ", "Bīrūnī, Abū Rayḥān: viii. Indology". Encyclopædia Iranica. 4 (3): 285–287.
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