Episode 233

Abd RihAn* Muhammad bin Ahmad al BiiiUNi al Khwar- iZMt, was born''' about a.h. 360, a.d. 970-1. He was an astronomer, geometrician, historian, and logician. He was so ' Raiha.n would, be more correct, according to the Ka,m(is. In Biigg' s Firishta (p. 113), the name is strangely perverted into " Anvmry Khin." ^ The place of his hirth is disputed. His earliest biographer is Shahraztiri, who, in his Tawdrilch-i Snhamd, written shortly after Birdni's death, says that he was born at Birfin, in Sind, "a beautiful city full of excellent and marvellous things." He has been followed by Hiji KhaUa, by Ibn AbH TJssaibiah, and by Abii-1 FidS., on the authority of Ibn Sa'id, M. Eeinaud also states that he was a Sindian. Yet, where is this city of Biriin in Sind ? There is a Nirtln, or Nirfln Kot, near the site of the present city of Haidar&b&,d, corresponding in position with the Birfin indicated by Abil-1 Fids., which probably has had its first letter altered by a transposition of the vowel point. But M. Eeinaud (p. 195) is distinct in condemning Capt. McMurdo and other English writers who, following Idrisi, read Nirtin for Birfin. Abd-l Fid&'s reading cannot be disputed, for he not only gives, but describes the nature of, the diacritical point, and all that can be said against him is that he never was in India, and that he derived his information from others. (See Vol. I. Appx. p. 396.) In the Kitdbu-l Ansdb by Sam'&ni, a book of very great authority, written a.h. 562, A.D. 1166, Birllni is derived from the Persian, and made to apply to any one born out of Khw^rizm. Some authorities distinctly assert that he was born at Birdn, a town of KhwS,rizm, but I know not if the existence of such a town has been established. Birflnl in his Indian Geography takes little notice of Sind, and says nothing of his birthplace. [The passage quoted from the "Quarterly Review," {infra p. 3) seems to decide the question, for Birfini is there said to be a native of KhwMzm, and the whole tenor of the article confirms the statement.]