Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Bīrūnī (Persian: ‫)ابوریحان محمد بن احمد بیرونی‬,

often known as Alberonius in Latin, but also Al Beruni, Al Bayrooni or variants, (born
5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm (now in Uzbekistan, historically a part of greater
Iran), died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni, Khorasan) was a Persian[1][2] Muslim scholar
and polymath[3] of the 11th century.

Biruni was a polymath with an interest in various practical and scholarly fields that relate
to what nowadays is described as physics, anthropology, comparative sociology[4],
astronomy, astrology, chemistry, history, geography, mathematics, medicine, psychology,
philosophy, and theology. He was the first Muslim scholar to study India and the
Brahminical tradition,[5] and has been described as the founder of Indology,[6] and "the
first anthropologist".[7] He was one of the first exponents of an experimental method of
investigation[8], introducing this method into mechanics[9] and what is nowadays called
mineralogy, psychology[10], and astronomy.[11][12]

Biruni has for example been described as "one of the very greatest scientists of [the
Islamic world], and, all considered, one of the greatest of all times."[13] , or as "one of the
great scientific minds in all history."[14] The crater Al-Biruni on the Moon is named after
him. Tashkent Technical University (formerly Tashkent Polytechnic Institute) is also
named after Abu Rayhan al-Biruni and a university founded by Ahmad Shah Massoud in
Kapisa is named after him.[15]