Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Al-Bīrūnī: A Brief Summary of His Life and Major Works

Chapter 1. Al-Bīrūnī: Prologues and Method

1. Al-Asʾila waʾl-Ajwiba

2. Al-Āthār ʾl-bāqiya ʿan ʾl-qurūn ʾl-khāliya

3. Al-Qānūn al-masʿūdī fiʾl-hayʾa waʾl-nujūm

4. Kitāb taḥqīq mā liʾl-Hind

5. Al-Bīrūnī, Hindu Cosmology, and Atomism

Chapter 2. Hindu Metaphysics According to the Hind

1. Mediaeval Arabic Texts on Hinduism and Their Sources

2. Al-Bīrūnī’s Sanskrit Sources: Kitāb Sānk and Kitāb Bātanjal

3. The Differentiation of Kitāb Sānk and Kitāb Bātanjal

4. Theology from Kitāb Bātanjal to the Hind

5. Passage 1: The Theological Interface between Kitāb Bātanjal and the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali

6. Passage 2: The Theological Interface between Kitāb Bātanjal and the Citations from the Book Referred to as gītā

7. Passage 3: Kitāb Sānk and the Discussion of Human and Divine Action in the Hind

8. Kitāb Sānk as Conclusion to the Comparative Triptych

Chapter 3. Al-Nafs: The Soul in Kitāb Bātanjal

1. Introduction

2. From Kitāb Bātanjal to the Hind

3. The Soul and Spiritual Liberation

4. Al-Bīrūnī and Western Scholarship

5. The Yoga-Sūtra and the Psychology of Kitāb Bātanjal

Chapter 4. Kitāb Bātanjal: The Preface and Sections I–III

1. The Tripartite Preface of Kitāb Bātanjal

2. Section I: Concentration of the Heart (Mind)

3. Section II: Guidance towards Praxis

4. Section III: The Manner of Recompense

5. Conclusion

Chapter 5. Section IV of Kitāb Bātanjal: Liberation and Unification, a Reading

1. Introduction

2. Section IV and the Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali: Liberation, the Soul and the Intellect

3. The Soul, Matter and Unification

4. Liberation: The Intellect, Intellected and Intellector

5. Ibn Sīnā’s Treatment of the Soul and Intellect in Aḥwāl al-Nafs and His De Anima

6. Conclusion: Kitāb Bātanjal, Knowledge and Language

Chapter 6. Al-Nafs: The Soul in the Hind

1. Introduction

2. The Body/Soul Relationship in the Hind

3. Chapter Seven of the Hind: On the Manner of Liberation from the World and the Description of the Path That Leads to It

4. The Part of Worship

5. Islamic Characteristics Attributed to the Hindu “God”

6. Liberation, Divine Unification, and Knowledge

7. The Nature of Liberation According to Kitāb Bātanjal and Kitāb Sānk

8. Conclusion: Liberation, Metempsychosis and al-Bīrūnī’s Islamic Reading of Hinduism

Conclusion

Appendix. Translation of Section IV of Kitāb Bātanjal

Glossary of Terms

Bibliography

Index of Subjects

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Names

Index of Ancient and Mediaeval Sources