Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.30

c19.30

⁹ Abu Rihán Al Bírúni was a native of Balkh in Central Asia. He accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni to India in his expeditions and acquired an accurate knowledge of Sanskrit. His acquaintance with this language and Greek and his love of enquiry and research together with his fairness and impartiality, make his Indica a most valuable contribution to our information on India in the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries. He finished his work after the death of his patron in A.D. 1030-31. See Sachau's Preface to the Arabic Text of the Indicas, ix.