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Alberuni, or Abu Raihan, as known to his
contemporaries, was a Central Asian traveller
visiting India in around AD 1030. His account of
India, called Tahqîq Mâ-lil-Hind, is still
valued as a source book by Indophiles in general
and the researchers of Indian history in
particular. Edited with notes and indices by
Edward Sachau, and first published in 1888, this
is the only available English translation of the
Arabic original.
This volume has two accompanying essays,
relevant in the understanding of the time and
the context when the text was written, and later
when it was translated.
MC Joshi, the former Director General of the
Archælogical Survey of India (ASI), in his
essay, "Alberuni: An Outstanding Author on
Medieval India," examines the nature of
Alberuni's scholarship, and the scope of his
account of India.
Peter Heine, Professor of Islamic Studies of the
non-Arab World and Acting Director, Institute of
Asian and African Studies, at the Humboldt
University in Berlin, in his essay "The
Orientalist of the Kaiser," investigates the
intellectual clime of the period when the first
translation of Alberuni's India appeared. Edward
Sachu, the translator and editor of the Arabic
text - and one of Prof. Heine's predecessors at
the University - was not only a protagonist of
classical Oriental studies in Germany, but also
became one of the founding fathers of modern
Oriental studies. |
