Scientific heritage is among the most important types of cultural assets and the Muslim world enjoys rich resources in this regard.
Scientists often imitate the works of previous scholars; i.e. some sciences are discovered and then various scientists repeat or expand that field throughout history. However, some sciences are new and al-Biruni was of the scholars that offered new discoveries and inventions. He wrote several works out of which only three has remained today.
Carl Eduard Sachau (1845-1930 CE) was a German orientalist who translated al-Biruni’s “Kitab Ta'rikh al-Hind”, which is an encyclopedic on India, into German and English. In absence of his translation, the book could have been destroyed like some other works of the Iranian polymath.
Al-Biruni tried to incorporate mathematics into other fields of study as he believed that every science should be justifiable with mathematics. Today we see that mathematics plays a major role in other sciences such as psychology.
He translated Sanskrit books on Geometry of Euclid and Astrolabe to Arabic. He managed to calculate the sine of angle 1 while also determining the direction of qibla. Above all, he highlighted the rotational movement of the earth which had been less discussed.
Al-Biruni is known as a mathematician, astronomer, historian, and natural scientist. He was proficient in Persian, Khwarazmian, Arabic, and Sanskrit while also being familiar with ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac.
This article was a summary of remarks made by Ahmad Tamimyari, full professor of Persian literature at Allameh Tabataba'i University.