It seems an update here is well overdue! We have not stopped reading, just keeping busy on other channels.
Most of this year we have been getting acquainted first-hand with al-Biruni’s works. We started through our group’s interest in his passages on the lunar stations or mansions (manazil al-qamar), which are found in several of his works. And finally we started reading from the beginning his famous Fi tahqiq ma lil-Hind, meaning something like ”Establishing the actual truth of what is in India”—with the subtext: “because I spent a lot of time there and know what I’m talking about!”
Al-Biruni is quite remarkable, among other feats, because of his knowledge of Sanskrit and the Hindu tradition, which he acquired directly from the Indian masters with much effort and dedication. In fact, his works are one of the most compelling and iluminating witnesses to the transmission of sciences, especially mathematical (this includes music, astrology and astronomy), between the Hindu and Muslim civilisations. Biruni is a key link in the transmission of fundamental concepts that would end up shaping the development of our own contemporary sciences.
The Tahqiq is a big and varied work, rather disconcerting in its almost simultaneous praise, diffidence and criticism of Indian doctrines and mores. The beginning of the book, in any case, deals with the basics of their metaphysics, and is surely one of the earliest and most original works of comparative religion in the history of Eurasia.
Biruni translates and adapts at every turn concepts of Hindu polytheism, nuancing the wording delicately, to help Muslim readers grasp the subtleties of such a different theological system. In doing so he translates passages of the Veda, the Bhagavad Gita, and such key works as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, which he would eventually translate in their entirety.
Needless to say, it is not an easy text, but great fun to read in a group, tackling the textual and thematic difficulties with our combined skills.
Right now we are on a term break until January 2027, but do get in touch if you are interested in joining. [JA]
