BIRUNI (ABU-R-RAIHAN MUHAMMAD AL-BIRUN) (973 1048 ), Arabian scholar of Persian parentage, was a Shiite in reli gion. He pursued the study of history, chronology, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and medicine. He corresponded with the Ibn Sina (see AVICENNA), and the answers of the latter are still preserved in the British Museum. He went to India, where he taught Greek philosophy and learned that of India. In 1017 he was taken by Mahmud of Ghazni to Afghanistan, where he re mained until his death in 1048.
An English translation of his Atha,- ul-Bakiya under the title of Chronology of Ancient Nations appeared in 1879, and his History of India was issued in English in 1888.