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marvellous necklace of great beauty.
5, Lastly, Beruni explains that humanity's fear of death and the uncertainty of what comes thereafter led him to consider more carefully the
vanity and the unfulfilled worldly pleasures, yearning for a better life devoid of suffering and disease. He nearly concluded that true happiness is indeed attainable only in seeking security, and welfare is preserved with diligence and goodwill. In the introductory passages of the text, furthermore, the author
considered the phenomenon of the sun and the moon. He tactfully and experimentally explained that by continuous lifting of water through evaporation, clouds are formed to saturation. Then as a result of atmospheric movement and changes, the winds cause rain to fall providing naturally, the good things of life: foods, nournishment, growth and fertility to plants, as well as to man and beast generously. Waters ultimately run to the sea, beginning a new cycle to bless all tilings abundantly. At the start of his discussion, the author searched to find sources
for his deliberations. He discovered that the only two best available references on the subject of jewels and minerals were the following: one, a text written by Abu Yusuf Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi (d. ca. 258/871), the philosopher of the Arabs, entitled Fi'l-jawahir wa'l Ash bah, on gems and semi-precious stones and minerals, a manual which unfortunately is since lost. The other, by far much inferior, was indited apparently in Persian at the beginning of the 5th/l 1th century by a certain Nasr b. Ya'qub al-Dinawari. Both texts, however, expounded and explicated the importance of
the subject matter, and exposed the frauds of many goldsmiths and contemporary jewellers. Then in addition to the above two references, Beruni relied on and gained much personal experience and insight from his own observations, and in dealing with all kinds of peoples during his many travels throughout Central Asia. Living Things and the Senses
In the introduction likewise, Beruni identifies and distinguishes
plants and animals from each other, their characteristics and their life cycles through seasons. Vegetables and all kinds of plants, for example, need less nourishment. Because of their stationary nature, the demands of plants for nutrients, comparatively, will be by far much less. They are content to receive what foods are found around them. Such substances turn into a gentle liquid form, and are thus attracted and absorbed. The same are then transmitted by absorption, through the tender rootlets (al-jurthumah). They ascend upward, by the same attraction, into the upper parts of the plant, until the growth processes |
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