Al-Biruni

Definition

Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973–1048 CE) was a Khwarezmian polymath who worked at the Ghaznavid court and, in 1029 CE, wrote the *Kitāb al-Tafhīm li-awāʾil ṣināʿat al-tanjīm* — the "Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology." Built as a question-and-answer primer, it covers four sciences: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and astrology (§§347–530). The astrological section is the standard 11th-century Persian-Arabic synthesis of the Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic authorities.

In Tradition

Across the Arabic-Persian tradition and the modern revival, Al-Biruni is read as the great scholarly, encyclopedic synthesizer of 11th-century astrology — a different kind of voice from the plain teaching of Sahl, Masha'allah, or Abu Maʿshar. He cites Ptolemy, Dorotheus, Valens, "the Hindus," and Persian and Arabic authorities throughout, and now and then he questions popular practice — the *Tafhim* takes aim at careless astrologers in §529 and is skeptical of thought-reading in §530.

In Practice

Traditional astrologers today read Al-Biruni's *Tafhim* as the standard Persian-Arabic reference primer: the natures of the planets, the doctrines of the signs and houses, dignities, the lots, the lunar-mansion attributions, the aspects, and the 11th-century consensus on horary and elections. It is taught as a careful synthesizer's voice — the cross-tradition reference for what the Hellenistic, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic authorities agreed on before later schools went their separate ways. R. Ramsay Wright's 1934 Luzac translation (public-domain-borderline; reprinted by AstroAmerica in 2006) is the standard English access; the Arabic original is public domain.

Historical Origin

Al-Biruni was born in Khwarezm in 973 CE and died at Ghazni c. 1048 CE. He composed the *Tafhim* in 1029 CE at the Ghaznavid court of Mahmud and Maʿsud. His other major works include *Al-Qānūn al-Masʿūdī* (astronomy, c. 1037), the *Chronology of Ancient Nations* (c. 1000), and the *Indika* (on India, c. 1030). The standard English edition is R. Ramsay Wright's *Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology* (Luzac, 1934 — borderline on the pre-1929 cutoff; AstroAmerica 2006 reprint). The Arabic critical edition is by Ahmad Saʿid Khan, Hyderabad 1973.

Further Reading

• Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Kitāb al-Tafhīm (Wright trans. 1934)
• James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology