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Page from the Oldest Manuscript of the Tafhim

Al-Biruni

A page from the oldest surviving manuscript of Al-Biruni's Persian scientific textbook, the Tafhim, held in Tehran.

This manuscript preserves Al-Biruni's own Persian-language scientific writing in the Tafhim.

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Two facing pages of an old Arabic manuscript in brown ink with red headings. The left page has a red and black diagram of concentric circles with labels. The right page is dense handwritten text in columns.
Page from the oldest known manuscript of Al-Biruni's Tafhim, Majlis Library, Tehran.

About this source

What it is

This is a page from the oldest known manuscript copy of Al-Biruni's Tafhim, held today in the Majlis Library in Tehran. The left page shows a diagram of concentric circles, and the right page is dense handwritten text in columns.

Why it matters

The manuscript is evidence that Al-Biruni wrote scientific works not only in Arabic but also in Persian, showing his role in spreading scientific learning across languages in the Islamic world. Its survival allows historians to study his original text closely.

Look closer

  • Why might Al-Biruni have chosen to write some works in Persian rather than Arabic?
  • What does the careful diagram on the page suggest about how science was taught at the time?
  • How might copying by hand over centuries change a text compared to the original?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Al-Biruni on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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