Al-Biruni dies at Ghazni

1050

The Khwarezmian polymath, who had written an encyclopedia of India based on learning Sanskrit, calculated the earth's radius from a mountain angle, and chronicled the religions of Central Asia, died at the Ghaznavid capital. His forty surviving works range across astronomy, pharmacology, mineralogy, and comparative religion. His study of Indian civilization remains the most sympathetic and systematic account by any medieval Muslim scholar.