Beruni was born on the outskirts (that is in Berun, a suburb or
environ, hence nicknamed 'At Beruni') of the city of Khwarizm,
located in the Amu Darya delta region, which is known today as Khiva
(Kath or pronounced Kazh of the Karakalpaskaya or Uzbekistan) of the
modern U.S.S.R., on the southern shores of the Aral Sea.
Beruni's mother tongue was a Khwarazmian dialect of Central Asia
at the time. He knew also the Persian language very well, but cared less
about it: instead he mastered Arabic, the language of the Holy Qur'an,
which was also the language of arts and sciences in his times. He expressed his genuine interest, pride, grasp and appreciation of Arabic in
which he wrote all of his numerous books and compendia (amounting
to more than one hundred in number, some of which are large volumes).
Little is known of the ancestries of many great Muslim scholars
such as Abu Bakr al-Razi (Latin: Rhazes, d. 313/925), the physician
Ibn Abi al-Ash'ath and others. However, from Beruni's writings we can
document and glean areas of his personal life, and highlight the major
events of his intellectual career, in addition to other bio-bibliographically pertinent data. From this we learn that Beruni was definitely born
on the 3rd of Dhu'l-Hijjah, 362/4th of September, 973. From his early
youth, he exhibited unusual intelligence, and a scholarly bent of mind,
with prowess and love for learning and research. There in the capital of
Khwarazm (Kazh) he received excellent education and training from
great masters such as the astro-mathematician al-Shaykh Abu Nasr
Mansur b. 'Ali b. 'Iraq (d. before 427 A.H.), and the honourable
Shaykh 'Abd al-Samad b. 'Abd al-Samad of Khwarazm.
At the age of seventeen, Beruni conducted his first original research
and experiments in physics and astronomy. He used a ring graduated in
halves of degrees to observe the meridian solar transits. He continued
on until early 384/995, doing a series of astronomical investigations
across the shores of the Oxus river at Kazh, for terrestrial latitude
measurements on the sextant and other devised instruments. At that
time, the prince of Jurjaniyah attacked Kazh and dispossessed it from
its legitimate ruler Khwarazmshah Abu'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Ali b.
'Iraq al-Shahid, gaining control of the region. Thereupon Beruni possibly went to Rayy and some other places within the province of Jilan.
But then he returned to Kazh where he observed and recorded a lunar
eclipse on May 24th, 997 A.D. and performed other experiments.
Beruni's first benefactor, however, was the Samanid Sultan Abu
