Tales of Medieval Islam: al-Biruni

The annals of Islam are chock full of tales about wise men called into the presence of a king, saying something clever, and having the royal bounty bestowed upon them. And so it was with Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973-1048). Alas, he had a bit of a detour along the way.

Abu Rayhan was one of the greatest astronomers and mathematicians of the Middle Ages. By his own count, he wrote 113 books. At a time when it was widely believed that the earth was stationary and the heavens revolved around it, Abu Rayhan delved into the possibility that it was the other way around: the earth revolved on its axis. But despite his brilliance, when it came to speaking to kings, he forgot the first rule:

 

It is related that once when Yaminu’d-Dawla Sultan Mahmud bin Nasiru’d-Din was sitting on the roof of a four-doored summer-house in Ghazna, in the Garden of a Thousand Trees, he turned his face to Abu Rayhan and said, “By which of these four doors shall I go out?” (for all four were practicable). “Decide and write the decision on a piece of paper, and put it under my quilt.” Abu Rayhan called for an astrolabe, took the altitude, determined the Ascendant, reflected for a while, and then wrote down his decision on a piece of paper, and placed it under the quilt. “Hast thou decided?” asked Mahmud. He answered, “I have.” Then Mahmud bade them bring a navvy [an unskilled laborer] with pick-axe and spade, and in the wall which was on the eastern side they dug out a fifth door, through which he went out. Then he bade them bring the paper. So they brought it, and on it Abu Rayhan had written, “He will go out through none of these four doors, but they will dig a fifth door in the eastern wall, by which door he will go forth.” Mahmud, on reading this, was furious, and bade them cast Abu Rayhan down in the midst of the palace, and so they did. Now there was stretched a net from the middle floor, and on it Abu Rayhan fell. The net tore, and he subsided gently to the ground, so that he received no injury. “Bring him in,” said Mahmud. So they brought him in, and Mahmud said, “O Abu Rayhan, at all events thou didst not know about this event!” “I knew it, Sire,” answered he. Said Mahmud, “Where is the proof?” So Abu Rayhan called for his servant, took the Almanac from him, and produced the prognostications out of the Almanac and amongst the predictions for that day was written:—“To-day they will cast me down from a high place, but I shall reach the earth in safety, and arise sound in body.” All this was not according to Mahmud’s mind. He waxed still angrier, and ordered Abu Rayhan to be detained in the citadel. So Abu Rayhan was confined in the citadel of Ghazna, where he remained for six months… It is said that the Prime Minister Ahmad ibn Hasan of Maymand (may God be merciful to him!) was for six months seeking an opportunity to say a word on behalf of Abu Rayhan. At length, when engaged in the chase, he found the King in a good humour, and, working from one topic to another, he brought the conversation round to Astrology. Then he said, “Poor Abu Rayhan uttered two such good prognostications, and, instead of decorations and a robe of honour, earned only bonds and imprisonment. “Know, my lord,” replied Mahmud, “for I have discovered it, and all men admit it, that this man has no equal in the world save Abu Ali [ibn] Sina (Avicenna). But both his prognostications were opposed to my will; and kings are like little children; in order to receive rewards from them, one should speak in accordance with their views. It would have been better for him on that day if one of those two prognostications had been wrong. But to-morrow order him to be brought forth, and to be given a horse caparisoned with gold, a royal robe, a satin turban, a thousand dinars, a boy slave and a handmaiden.” So…they brought forth Abu Rayhan, and the gift of honour detailed above was conferred upon him, and the King apologized to him, saying, “O Abu Rayhan, if thou desirest to reap advantage from me, speak according to my desire, not according to the dictates of thy science.” So thereafter Abu Rayhan altered his practice; and this is one of the conditions of the king’s service, that one must be with him in right or wrong, and speak according to his wish. Source: Nizami Arudi, Chahar Maqala (The Four Discourses), Edward G. Browne, tr., Mirza Muhammad, ed., London:Luzac & Co., 1921, Anecdotes XXIII-XXIV, pp. 65-67.

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092. It depicts the war for the Muslim soul between those who seek to enforce shari’a strictly, persecute Jews and Christians, and stamp out "un-Islamic" science, and those who wink at a few sins, tolerate their non-Muslim neighbors, and write science books instead of burning them.

Photo credit: AboutIslam.net

Tales of Medieval Islam

How a Jewish astrologer outwitted two Muslim antagonists.

Another story from Nizami Arudi:

Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi [801-873], though he was a Jew, was the philosopher of his age and the wisest man of his time, and stood high in the service of [the caliph] al-Ma’mun. One day he came in before al-Ma’mun and sat down above one of the prelates of Islam. Said this man, “Thou art of a subject race; why then dost though sit above the prelates of Islam?” “Because,” said Ya’qub, “I know what thou knowest, while thou knowest not what I know.” Now this prelate knew of his skill in Astrology, but had no knowledge of his other attainments in science. “I will write down,” said he, “something on a piece of paper, and if thou canst divine what I have written, I will admit thy claim.” Then they laid a wager, on the part of the prelate a cloak, and on the part of Ya’qub a mule and its trappings, worth a thousand dinars, which was standing at the door. Then the former asked for an inkstand and paper, wrote something on a piece of paper, and placed it under the Caliph’s quilt, and cried, “Out with it!” Ya’qub ibn Ishaq asked for a tray of earth, rose up, took the altitude, ascertained the Ascendant, drew an astrological figure on the tray of earth, determined the positions of the stars and located them in the Signs of the Zodiac, and fulfilled all the conditions of divination and thought-reading. Then he said, “O Commander of the Faithful, on that paper he has written something which was first a plant and then an animal.” Al-Ma’mun put his hand under the quilt and drew forth the paper, on which was written “The Rod of Moses.” Ma’mun was filled with wonder and the prelate expressed his astonishment. Then Ya’qub took the cloak of his adversary, and cut it in two before al-Ma’mun, saying, “I will make it into two putties [leggings made from winding a strip of cloth].” This matter became generally known in Baghdad, whence it spread to Iraq and Khurasan, and became widely diffused. A certain doctor in Balkh, prompted by the fanatical zeal which characterizes the learned, took a knife and placed it in the middle of a book on Astrology, intending to go to Baghdad, attend the lectures of Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, make a beginning in Astrology, and, when he should find a suitable opportunity, suddenly kill him. Stage by state he advanced in this resolve, until he reached Baghdad, went in to the hot bath, and came out, arrayed himself in clean clothes, and, placing the book in his sleeve, set out for Ya’qub’s house. When he reached the gate of the house, he saw standing there many handsomely-caparisoned horses belonging to the descendants of the Prophet and other eminent and notable persons of Baghdad. Having made inquiries, he went in, entered the circle in front of Ya’qub, greeted him, and said, “I desire to study somewhat of the Science of the Stars with our Master.” “Thou hast come from the East to slay me, not to study Astrology,” replied Ya’qub, “but thou wilt repent of thine intention, study the Stars, attain perfection in that science, and become one of the greatest Astrologers among the People of Muhammad (on whom be God’s Blessing and Peace).” All the great men there assembled were astonished at these words; and Abu Ma’shar confessed and produced the knife from the middle of the book, broke it, and cast it away. Then he bent his knees and studied for fifteen years, until he attained in Astrology that eminence which was his.

An end note in the Edward Browne translation of Nizami explains that Abu Ma’shar went on to become “one of the most celebrated astronomers of the third century of the hijra (ninth of the Christian era)…On one occasion he was scourged by the command of the Caliph al-Musta’in (reigned A.H. 248-251; A.D. 862-5) because of a prognostication which he made and which proved too correct.”

However, the notes also tell us that “The author’s assertion that the celebrated al-Kindi, called par excellence 'the Philosopher of the Arabs,' was a Jew, is…so absurd as to go near to the discrediting of the whole story.” Nevertheless, the story, “derives some confirmation” from other works.

Regardless of whether the story is true, its very existence tells us something about the time and place where it originated. It was an era when the shari'a relegated the Jews to the status of “a subject race,” and yet here we have a story where not only is the Jewish character the good guy, but he gets seated in a place of higher precedence than "the prelates of Islam," is waited upon by "descendants of the Prophet" and "other eminent and notable persons," and in the the end, gets the better of his Muslim adversaries. The fact that a prominent scholar like Nizami Arudi, a student of the great Omar Khayyam, included this story in his book shows that not every learned Muslim was characterized by "fanatical zeal" against the Jews.

Michael Isenberg drinks bourbon and writes novels. His latest book, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092, and tells the story of the conflict between science and shari’ah in medieval Islam. It is available on Amazon.com The quotation from Nizami come from Chahar Maqala (The Four Discourses), Edward G. Browne, tr., Mirza Muhammad, ed., London:Luzac & Co., 1921, Anecdote XXII, pp. 64-65.

Tales of Medieval Islam

How an ass-herder became a king.

In my blog yesterday, I called on Aung San Suu Kyi, First State Counsellor of Myanmar (Burma), to speak out against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims at the hands of the Burmese army. I argued that even if the political realities of Myanmar prevented her from doing anything more forceful than speak out, that’s still a powerful thing.

The story of Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Khuzistani illustrates just how powerful words could be.

Ahmad lived in the ninth century, a time when everyone in the Muslim world, low and high, immersed themselves in poetry. He started life as an ass-herder, but managed to work his way up to become Emir of Khorasan (eastern Iran, more or less). Nizami Arudi wrote, “[T]he affairs of Ahmad ibn ‘Abdu’llah prospered so greatly that in one night in Nishapur he distributed in largess 300,000 [gold] dinars, 500 head of horses, and 1000 suits of clothes, and to-day he stands in history as one of the victorious monarchs.”

When asked how he managed to rise so high, from such humble beginnings, Ahmad replied, according to Nizami,

One day I was reading the Diwan of Hanzala of Baghdis…when I chanced on these two couplets:— 'If lordship lies within the lion’s jaws, Go, risk it, and from those dread portals seize Such straight-confronting death as men desire, Or riches, greatness, rank and lasting ease.' An impulse stirred within me such that I could in no wise remain content with that condition wherein I was. I therefore sold my asses, bought a horse, and [quit] my country.

And thus, inspired by a poem about risking everything to snatch greatness, the one-time ass-herder embarked upon a glorious career.

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092. It depicts the war for the Muslim soul between those who seek to enforce shari’a strictly, persecute Jews and Christians, and stamp out "un-Islamic" science, and those who wink at a few sins, tolerate their non-Muslim neighbors, and write science books instead of burning them.

Quotations from Nizami come from Chahar Maqala (The Four Discourses), Edward G. Browne, tr., Mirza Muhammad, ed., London:Luzac & Co., 1921, Anecdote XII, pp. 27-29.