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SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES / ALAMY
Regarded as the “founder of Indiology,” Al-Biruni advanced
sciences in the Islamic world with his translations of and
reflections upon a wide range of Indus thought. This illustration
depicts his understanding of the phases of the moon.
Islamic Science's India Connection

From the mid-10th century ce one of history’s great
scientific eras began to flourish across Islamic lands.

Like the European Renaissance, it was marked as
much by cultural exchange, synthesis and dialog as
it was by individual discovery. Connections forged
among scholars and scientists of Islamic lands with
contemporaries and predecessors beyond their own
borders led to an unprecedented pooling of knowledge
over generations and continents. The Indus Valley and
the wider Indian subcontinent proved to be deep wells
of the scholarship that gradually came to be known
westward via translation into Arabic as well as Persian.
From the observations of philosophers to the calculations
of mathematicians, from the models of astronomers to
the treatises of physicians, these works helped shape
the era that became known as “the golden age of Islamic
science”.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

After the Muslim conquest of India, several rulers,
including most notably the Mughal emperors of the
16th and early 17th centuries, beginning with Akbar
the Great, facilitated translations of Indian literature
into Persian and Arabic. Several well-known Indian books such as Mahabharata, parts of
the Vedas, Yoga-Vasistha, Bhagavad-Gita and Bhagavata Purana were thus translated. The
most fundamental views contained within these texts express the crux of natural philosophy:
a universe in constant transformation, wherein elements are interconnected, sharing in
absolute unity and having a sequence of creation. The Yoga-Vasistha, for example, a collection
of stories and fables nearly 30,000 verses in length, was appreciated for its “realities, diverse
morals, and remarkable advice.”

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