Al-biruni contributions to astronomy

BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN

iii. Mathematics and Astronomy

Ninety-five of 146 books known to have been written by Bīrūnī, about 65 percent, were devoted to astronomy, mathematics, and related subjects like math­ematical geography (Kennedy, p.

Al-biruni contributions to astronomy

152). The mathemat­ical portions of his works were invariably devoted to applied, rather than theoretical, mathematics; neverthe­less, in the process of solving problems, Bīrūnī did sometimes indulge in theoretical discussions.

Similarly, although his main concern in astronomy was for computations, he also devoted attention to theoretical problems. The following assessment of Bīrūnī’s contri­butions is based on his work in applied mathematics and on the theoretical portions of his astronomical works.

Theoretical concepts.

Bīrūnī’s major contribution to astronomy is al-Qānūn al-masʿūdī fi’l-hayʾa wa’l-nojūm (Masʿudic canon of astronomy), covering the same