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Ghaznah. Abu Hamid was indeed a trustworthy collaborator a highly
qualified practioner, informative, resourceful and naturalist of good reputation. At the age of 80, according to the Hijrah system (78 years in the solar account), the end approached. Beruni finally realized that his intellectual pursuits had lost its two useful, systematic and orderly functions and powers, eyesight and hearing. Indeed what was left of his sight during the daytime, was of not
much use after dark (that is almost a total nyctalopia-night blindness). And in regard to hearing, Beruni explained that he only responded to loud voices, and also with that he could not recognize the words. He died in early 443/1051. It is pity that despite the help Abu Hamid gave, the two together were not able to revise the very important Kitab al-Saydanah fi'l-Tibb into a more complete, integrated manual, the finest and best of its kind at the time. Only two rare copies survived in Arabic with two later copies by modern scribes. 9. Hakim Mohammed Said (editor), Al-Biruni's Book on Pharmacy
and Materia Medica, Karachi, Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, 1973; and vol. 2, Introduction, pp. 17—20, 34—38, U.I. Karimov, al-Saydanah in Uzbekistan, Tashkent, USSR, 1973, (in Russian), Serefeddin Yaltkaya (1879—1919), Al-Sayadanah Fi'l-Tibb, Istanbul, Milli necmua basimevi, 1937, pp. 1-30; and Bedi N. Sehsuvarovlu, "Al-Biruni's K. AlSaydanah," Istanbul, Univ. Tip Facult., 1959, 1024-30. 10. This book was edited by the German orientalist, Fritz Krenkow, in
the Osmania Oriental Publ. Bureau, Hyderabad, Deccan, India, 1355/ 1936; see also G, C. Anawati, "Kitab al-Jamahir of al-Biruni", AlBiruni, Comm. Vol. op. cit., pp. 437—53; also Syed H. H. Nadvi, pp. 530-44; and M. A. H. Qadri, pp. 587-92. Krenkow consulted Rashid Afandi in al-Qaysariyah, as well as the El-Escorial Ar. Ms. no. 905, and the Top Kapi Sarai of the Ahmed III Arabic Ms. no. 2047, dated end of Safar, A.H. 626, and of which the last two, I have personally examined carefully and acquired microfilm copies thereof for my own study. I also consulted the Harvard copy (Houghton Library) at Cambridge, photostat Ms. Ar. 59 (or no. 1386), which is a copy of the Ahmed Ill's Ms. copied by the physician Ahmad b. Siddiq b. Muhammad. ll.'Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima, 4th ed., Beirut, Dar al-Qalam (vowelized), 1981. See also D. J. Boilot and A. Zeki Velidi Toqan, al-Biruni, Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., Leiden, 1960, vol. 1, 1 236—8; Tiki ed-Din al-Hilali Taqi, Die Einleitung zu al-Biruni Steinbuch, Leipzig, O. Harrassowitz, 1941, and Eleksander Markovich Belenitskii, Al-Jamahir (translation in Russian through the Academy of Science), 1963 in 518 pp. with interpretations. 12. Muhammad Yahya Haschmi (1903—1979), Die Quellen des Steinbuches des al-Biruni, Dissert., University of Bonn, 1935, in 48 pp. and
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