Great Books Project
The plan for publishing, in English translation, one hundred important books of Islamic thought, culture and civilization was formally approved by the Pakistan Hijra Council in 1984. To enable the reader to
better appreciate the development of modern knowledge, it was decided
that the present series should preferably cover those early works which
laid the foundation of a new faith-cum-knowledge based civilization.
Accordingly, the following criteria were laid down for selection and inclusion of books in the present Project Series:
These should be the books of first intensity, the books that have mattered in the advancement of knowledge.
The book selected should either be a pioneering one on the subject, the
most advanced work of its time, the one that had greatest possible
impact in its area of knowledge, or the one that was studied widely
in the world of Islam and outside.
If a book satisfies the above criteria, it is to be selected "irrespective of
the fact whether it has already been edited/translated/published
or not".
After widest possible consultations and continued modifications in the
choices made, one hundred titles were selected and listed under the following 12 categories of knowledge:
I. Religion and Ethics. VII. Society and Culture.
II. Education and Pursuit of VIII. Cosmos and Cosmography.
Knowledge.
III. Philosophical Thought. DC. Natural Sciences.
IV. Political Thought, Governance X. Mathematical Sciences,
and Administration.
V. Jurisprudence and Law. XI. Science and Art of Healing.
VI. Histoiy.
XII. Applied Science and
Technology.
The Project Plan and the selected titles were finally approved by the Advisory Council on 29th June, 1987 with the observation that inclusion of
any alternate competing titles may be considered on merit at any stage of
the Project's implementation.
Al Beruni's book Kitab al-Jamahir fi Ma'rifat al-Jawahir is from
Category- IX, with No. 66 in the Project Series.
