Abu Rayhan al-Biruni
Remaining Signs of Past Centuries pp. 13-14, 23-27
c. 1030 CE
trans. C. Edward Sachau
1879
NOTE |
The Persian polymath al-Biruni (973-1048 CE) produced a famous work on the chronology of history, part of which explores questions that plagued Jewish, Christian, and Islamic attempts to reconcile secular and sacred history. In the following passages, al-Biruni attempts to unravel the truth about Flood of Noah and in so doing takes direct aim at the famous work of the astrologer ’Abu-Ma‘shar, whose slightly earlier writings laid the foundations for the Islamic myth of the antediluvian origins of the pyramids and their connection to astrological cycles of fire and flood, claims that find their ultimate origin in Babylonian astrological traditions.
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Era of the Creation
---The first and most famous of the beginnings of antiquity is the fact of the creation of mankind. But among those who have a book of divine revelation, such as the Jews, Christians, Magians, and their various sects, there exists such a difference of opinion as to the nature of this fact, and as to the question how to date from it, the like of which is not allowable for eras. Everything, the knowledge of which is connected with creation and with the history of bygone generations, is mixed up with falsifications and myths, because it belongs to a far remote age; because a long interval separates us therefrom, and because the student is incapable of keeping it in memory, and of fixing it (so as to preserve it from confusion). God says: “Have they not got the stories about those who were before them? None but God knows them.” (Sura ix. 71.) Therefore it is becoming not to admit any account of a similar subject, if it is not attested by a book, the correctness of which is relied upon, or by a tradition, for which the conditions of authenticity, according to the prevalent opinion, furnish grounds of proof.
If we now first consider this era, we find a considerable divergence of opinion regarding; it among these nations. For the Persians and Magians think that the duration of the world is 12,000 years, corresponding to the number of signs in the zodiac and of the months; and that Zarathustra, the founder of their law, thought that of those there had passed, till the time of his appearance, 3,000 years, intercalated with the day-quarters, for he himself had made their computation, and had taken into account that defect, which had accrued to them on account of the day-quarters, ‘till the time when they were intercalated and made to agree with real time. From his appearance to the beginning of the Era of Alexander, they count 258 years; therefore they count from the beginning of the world to Alexander 3,258 years. However, if we compute the years from the creation of Gayomard, whom they hold to be the first man, and sum up the years of the reign of each of his successors---for the rule of Iran remained with his descendants without interruption--this number is, for the time ‘till Alexander, the sum total of 3,354 years. So the specification of the single items of the addition does not agree with the sum total.
A section of the Persians is of the opinion that those past 3,000 years which we have mentioned are to be counted from the creation of Gayomard; because, before that, already six thousand years had elapsed---a time during which the celestial globe stood motionless, the natures (of created beings) did not interchange, the elements did not mix---during which there was no growth, and no decay, and the earth was not cultivated. Thereupon, when the celestial globe was set a-going, the first man came into existence on the equator, so that part of him in longitudinal direction was on the north, and part south of the line. The animals were reproduced, and mankind commenced to reproduce their own species and to multiply; the atoms of the elements mixed, so as to give rise to growth and decay; the earth was cultivated, and the world was arranged in conformity with fixed forms.
The Jews and Christians differ widely on this subject; for, according to the doctrine of the Jews, the time between Adam and Alexander is 3,448 years, whilst, according to the Christian doctrine it is 5,180 years. The Christians reproach the Jews with having diminished the number of years with the view of making the appearance of Jesus fall into the fourth millennium in the middle of the seven millennia, which are, according to their view, the time of the duration of the world, so as not to coincide with that time at which, as the prophets after Moses had prophesied, the birth of Jesus from a pure virgin at the end of time, was to take place.
[...]
If we now first consider this era, we find a considerable divergence of opinion regarding; it among these nations. For the Persians and Magians think that the duration of the world is 12,000 years, corresponding to the number of signs in the zodiac and of the months; and that Zarathustra, the founder of their law, thought that of those there had passed, till the time of his appearance, 3,000 years, intercalated with the day-quarters, for he himself had made their computation, and had taken into account that defect, which had accrued to them on account of the day-quarters, ‘till the time when they were intercalated and made to agree with real time. From his appearance to the beginning of the Era of Alexander, they count 258 years; therefore they count from the beginning of the world to Alexander 3,258 years. However, if we compute the years from the creation of Gayomard, whom they hold to be the first man, and sum up the years of the reign of each of his successors---for the rule of Iran remained with his descendants without interruption--this number is, for the time ‘till Alexander, the sum total of 3,354 years. So the specification of the single items of the addition does not agree with the sum total.
A section of the Persians is of the opinion that those past 3,000 years which we have mentioned are to be counted from the creation of Gayomard; because, before that, already six thousand years had elapsed---a time during which the celestial globe stood motionless, the natures (of created beings) did not interchange, the elements did not mix---during which there was no growth, and no decay, and the earth was not cultivated. Thereupon, when the celestial globe was set a-going, the first man came into existence on the equator, so that part of him in longitudinal direction was on the north, and part south of the line. The animals were reproduced, and mankind commenced to reproduce their own species and to multiply; the atoms of the elements mixed, so as to give rise to growth and decay; the earth was cultivated, and the world was arranged in conformity with fixed forms.
The Jews and Christians differ widely on this subject; for, according to the doctrine of the Jews, the time between Adam and Alexander is 3,448 years, whilst, according to the Christian doctrine it is 5,180 years. The Christians reproach the Jews with having diminished the number of years with the view of making the appearance of Jesus fall into the fourth millennium in the middle of the seven millennia, which are, according to their view, the time of the duration of the world, so as not to coincide with that time at which, as the prophets after Moses had prophesied, the birth of Jesus from a pure virgin at the end of time, was to take place.
[...]
Era of the Deluge
---The next following era is the era of the great deluge, in which everything perished at the time of Noah. Here, too, there is such a difference of opinions, and such a confusion, that you have no chance of deciding as to the correctness of the matter, and do not even feel inclined to investigate thoroughly its historical truth. The reason is, in the first instance, the difference regarding the period between the Era of Adam and the Deluge, which we have mentioned already; and secondly, that difference, which we shall have to mention, regarding the period between the Deluge and the Era of Alexander. For the Jews derive from the Torah, and the following books, for this latter period 1,792 years, whilst the Christians derive from their Torah for the same period 2,938 years.
The Persians, and the great mass of the Magians, deny the Deluge altogether; they believe that the rule of the world has remained with them without any interruption ever since Gayomard Gilshah, who was, according to them, the first man. In denying the Deluge, the Indians, Chinese, and the various nations of the East, concur with them. Some, however, of the Persians admit the fact of the Deluge, but they describe it in a different way from what it is described in the books of the prophets. They say, a partial deluge occurred in Syria and the West at the time of Tahmurath, but it did not extend over the whole of the then civilized world and only a few nations were drowned in it; it did not extend beyond the peak of Hulwan, and did not reach the empires of the East. Further, they relate, that the inhabitants of the West, when they were warned by their sages, constructed buildings of the kind of the two pyramids that have been built in Egypt, saying: “If the disaster comes from heaven we shall go into them; if it comes from the earth, we shall ascend above them.” People are of opinion that the traces of the water of the Deluge, and the efforts of the waves, are still visible on these two pyramids half-way up, above which the water did not rise. Another report says, that Joseph had made them a magazine where he deposited the bread and victuals for the years of drought.
It is related that Tahmurath on receiving the warning of the Deluge---231 years before the Deluge--ordered his people to select a place of good air and soil in his realm. Now they did not find a place that answered better to this description than Ispahan. Thereupon, he ordered all scientific books to be preserved for posterity and to be buried in a part of that place least exposed to obnoxious influences. In favor of this report we may state that in our time in Jay, the city of Ispahan, there have been discovered hills, which, on being excavated, disclosed houses, filled with many loads of that tree-bark with which arrows and shields are covered and which is called Tuz, bearing inscriptions, of which no one was able to say what they are and what they mean.
These discrepancies in their reports inspire doubts in the student, and make him inclined to believe what is related in some books, that Gayomard was not the first man, but that he was Gomer ben Yaphet ben Noah, that he was a prince to whom a long life was given, that he settled on the Mount Dumbawand, where he founded an empire, and that finally his power became very great, whilst mankind was still living in elementary conditions, similar to those at the time of creation and of the first stage of the development of the world. Then he, and some of his children, took control of the guidance of the world. Toward the end of his life, he became tyrannical, and called himself Adam, saying: “If anybody calls me by another name than this, I shall cut off his head.” Others are of the opinion that Gayomarth was Emim ben Lud ben ’Aram ben Sem ben Noah.
The astrologers have tried to correct these years, beginning from the first of the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, for which the sages among the inhabitants of Babel, and the Chaldaeans have constructed astronomical tables, the Deluge having originated in their country. For people say, that Noah built the ark in Kufa, and that it was there that “the well poured forth its waters” (Sura xi. 42; xxiii. 27); that the ark 40 rested upon the mountain of Aljudi, which is not very far from those regions. Now this conjunction occurred 229 years 108 days before the Deluge. This date they studied carefully, and tried by that to correct the subsequent times. So they found as the interval between the Deluge and the beginning of the reign of the first Nebukadnezar (Nabonassar), 2,604 years, and as the interval between Nebukadnezar and Alexander 436 years, a result which comes pretty near to that one, which is derived from the Thora of the Christians.
This was the era which ’Abu-Ma‘shar Albalkhi wanted, upon which to base his statements regarding the mean places of the stars in his Canon. Now he supposed that the Deluge had taken place at the conjunction of the stars in the last part of Pisces, and the first part of Aries, and he tried to compute their places for that time. Then he found, that they—all of them—stood in conjunction in the space between the twenty-seventh degree of Pisces, and the end of the first degree of Aries. Further, he supposed that between that time and the epoch of the Æra Alexandri, there is an interval of 2,790 intercalated years 7 months and 26 days. This computation comes near to that of the Christians, being 249 years and 3 months less than the estimate of the astronomers. Now, when he thought that he had well established the computation of this sum according to the method, which he has explained, and when he had arrived at the result, that the duration of those periods, which astronomers call “star-cycles,” was 360,000 years, the beginning of which was to precede the time of the Deluge by 180,000 years, he drew the inconsiderate conclusion, that the Deluge had occurred once in every 180,000 years, and that it would again occur in future at similar intervals.
This man, who is so proud of his ingenuity, had computed these star-cycles only from the motions of the stars, as they had been fixed by the observations of the Persians; but they (the cycles) differ from the cycles, which have been based upon the observations of the Indians, known as the “cycles of Sindhind,” and likewise they differ from the days of Arjabhaz, and the days of Arkand. If anybody would construct such cycles on the basis of the observations of Ptolemy, or of the modern astronomers, he might do so by the help of the well known methods of such a calculation, as in fact many people have done, e.g. Muhammad ben ’Ishak ben ’Ustadh Bundadh Alsarakhsi, ’Abu-al-wafa Muhammad ben Muhammad Albuzajani, and I myself in many of my books, particularly in the Kitab-al-istishhad bikhtilaf al’arsad.
In each of these cycles the stars come into conjunction with each other in the first part of Aries once, viz. when they start upon and return from their rotation, however, at different times. If he (’Abu-Ma‘shar) now would maintain, that the stars were created standing at that time in the first part of Aries, or that the conjunction of the stars in that place is identical with the beginning of the world, or with the end of the world, such an assertion would be utterly void of proof, although the matter be within the limits of possibility. But such conclusions can never be admitted, except they rest on an evident argument, or on the report of some one who relates the origines of the world, whose word is relied upon, and regarding whom in the mind (of the reader or hearer) this persuasion is established, that he had received divine inspiration and help.
For it is quite possible that these (celestial) bodies were scattered, not united at the time when the Creator designed and created them, they having these motions, by which—as calculation shows—they must meet each other in one point in such a time (as above mentioned). It would be the same, as if we, e.g. supposed a circle, in different separate places of which we put living beings, of whom some move fast, others slowly, each of them, however, being carried on in equal motions—of its peculiar sort of motion—in equal times; further, suppose that we knew their 10 distances and places at a certain time, and the measure of the distance over which each of them travels in one Nychthemeron. If you then ask the mathematician as to the length of time, after which they would meet each other in a certain point, or before which they had met each other in that identical point, no blame attaches to him, if he speaks of billions of years. Nor does it follow from his account that those beings existed at that (past) time (when they met each other), or that they would still exist at that (future) time (when they are to meet again); but this only follows from his account, if it is properly explained, that, if these beings really existed (in the past), or would still exist (in future) in that same condition, the result (as to their conjunctions) could be no other but that one at which he had arrived by calculation. But then the verification of this subject is the task of a science which was not the science of ’Abu-Ma‘shar.
If, now, the man who uses the cycles (the star-cycles), would conclude that they, viz. the stars, if they stood in conjunction in the first part of Aries, would again and again pass through the same cycles, because, according to his opinion, everything connected with the celestial globe is exempt from growth and decay, and that the condition of the stars in the past was exactly the same, his conclusion would be a mere assumption by which he quiets his mind, and which is not supported by any argument. For a proof does not equally apply to the two sides of a contradiction; it applies only to the one, and excludes the other. Besides it is well known among philosophers and others, that there is no such thing as an infinite evolution of power (δύναμις) into action (πραξις), until the latter comes into real existence. The motions, the cycles, and the periods of the past were computed whilst they in reality existed; they have decreased, whilst at the same time increasing in number; therefore, they are not infinite.
This exposition will be sufficient for a veracious and fair-minded student. But if he remains obstinate, and inclines to the tricks of overbearing people, more explanations will be wanted, which exceed the compass of this book, in order to remove these ideas from his mind, to heal what is feeble in his thoughts, and to plant the truth in his soul. However, there are other chapters of this book where it will be more suitable to speak of this subject than here. The discrepancy of the cycles, not the discrepancy of the observations, is a sufficient argument for—and a powerful help towards—repudiating the follies committed by ’Abu-Ma‘shar, and relied upon by foolish people, who abuse all religions, who make the cycles of Sindhind, and others, the means by which to revile those who warn them that the hour of judgment is coming, and who tell them, that on the day of resurrection there will be reward and punishment in yonder world. It is the same set of people who excite suspicions against—and bring discredit upon—astronomers and mathematicians, by counting themselves among their ranks, and by representing themselves as professors of their art, although they cannot even impose upon anybody who has only the slightest degree of scientific training.
The Persians, and the great mass of the Magians, deny the Deluge altogether; they believe that the rule of the world has remained with them without any interruption ever since Gayomard Gilshah, who was, according to them, the first man. In denying the Deluge, the Indians, Chinese, and the various nations of the East, concur with them. Some, however, of the Persians admit the fact of the Deluge, but they describe it in a different way from what it is described in the books of the prophets. They say, a partial deluge occurred in Syria and the West at the time of Tahmurath, but it did not extend over the whole of the then civilized world and only a few nations were drowned in it; it did not extend beyond the peak of Hulwan, and did not reach the empires of the East. Further, they relate, that the inhabitants of the West, when they were warned by their sages, constructed buildings of the kind of the two pyramids that have been built in Egypt, saying: “If the disaster comes from heaven we shall go into them; if it comes from the earth, we shall ascend above them.” People are of opinion that the traces of the water of the Deluge, and the efforts of the waves, are still visible on these two pyramids half-way up, above which the water did not rise. Another report says, that Joseph had made them a magazine where he deposited the bread and victuals for the years of drought.
It is related that Tahmurath on receiving the warning of the Deluge---231 years before the Deluge--ordered his people to select a place of good air and soil in his realm. Now they did not find a place that answered better to this description than Ispahan. Thereupon, he ordered all scientific books to be preserved for posterity and to be buried in a part of that place least exposed to obnoxious influences. In favor of this report we may state that in our time in Jay, the city of Ispahan, there have been discovered hills, which, on being excavated, disclosed houses, filled with many loads of that tree-bark with which arrows and shields are covered and which is called Tuz, bearing inscriptions, of which no one was able to say what they are and what they mean.
These discrepancies in their reports inspire doubts in the student, and make him inclined to believe what is related in some books, that Gayomard was not the first man, but that he was Gomer ben Yaphet ben Noah, that he was a prince to whom a long life was given, that he settled on the Mount Dumbawand, where he founded an empire, and that finally his power became very great, whilst mankind was still living in elementary conditions, similar to those at the time of creation and of the first stage of the development of the world. Then he, and some of his children, took control of the guidance of the world. Toward the end of his life, he became tyrannical, and called himself Adam, saying: “If anybody calls me by another name than this, I shall cut off his head.” Others are of the opinion that Gayomarth was Emim ben Lud ben ’Aram ben Sem ben Noah.
The astrologers have tried to correct these years, beginning from the first of the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, for which the sages among the inhabitants of Babel, and the Chaldaeans have constructed astronomical tables, the Deluge having originated in their country. For people say, that Noah built the ark in Kufa, and that it was there that “the well poured forth its waters” (Sura xi. 42; xxiii. 27); that the ark 40 rested upon the mountain of Aljudi, which is not very far from those regions. Now this conjunction occurred 229 years 108 days before the Deluge. This date they studied carefully, and tried by that to correct the subsequent times. So they found as the interval between the Deluge and the beginning of the reign of the first Nebukadnezar (Nabonassar), 2,604 years, and as the interval between Nebukadnezar and Alexander 436 years, a result which comes pretty near to that one, which is derived from the Thora of the Christians.
This was the era which ’Abu-Ma‘shar Albalkhi wanted, upon which to base his statements regarding the mean places of the stars in his Canon. Now he supposed that the Deluge had taken place at the conjunction of the stars in the last part of Pisces, and the first part of Aries, and he tried to compute their places for that time. Then he found, that they—all of them—stood in conjunction in the space between the twenty-seventh degree of Pisces, and the end of the first degree of Aries. Further, he supposed that between that time and the epoch of the Æra Alexandri, there is an interval of 2,790 intercalated years 7 months and 26 days. This computation comes near to that of the Christians, being 249 years and 3 months less than the estimate of the astronomers. Now, when he thought that he had well established the computation of this sum according to the method, which he has explained, and when he had arrived at the result, that the duration of those periods, which astronomers call “star-cycles,” was 360,000 years, the beginning of which was to precede the time of the Deluge by 180,000 years, he drew the inconsiderate conclusion, that the Deluge had occurred once in every 180,000 years, and that it would again occur in future at similar intervals.
This man, who is so proud of his ingenuity, had computed these star-cycles only from the motions of the stars, as they had been fixed by the observations of the Persians; but they (the cycles) differ from the cycles, which have been based upon the observations of the Indians, known as the “cycles of Sindhind,” and likewise they differ from the days of Arjabhaz, and the days of Arkand. If anybody would construct such cycles on the basis of the observations of Ptolemy, or of the modern astronomers, he might do so by the help of the well known methods of such a calculation, as in fact many people have done, e.g. Muhammad ben ’Ishak ben ’Ustadh Bundadh Alsarakhsi, ’Abu-al-wafa Muhammad ben Muhammad Albuzajani, and I myself in many of my books, particularly in the Kitab-al-istishhad bikhtilaf al’arsad.
In each of these cycles the stars come into conjunction with each other in the first part of Aries once, viz. when they start upon and return from their rotation, however, at different times. If he (’Abu-Ma‘shar) now would maintain, that the stars were created standing at that time in the first part of Aries, or that the conjunction of the stars in that place is identical with the beginning of the world, or with the end of the world, such an assertion would be utterly void of proof, although the matter be within the limits of possibility. But such conclusions can never be admitted, except they rest on an evident argument, or on the report of some one who relates the origines of the world, whose word is relied upon, and regarding whom in the mind (of the reader or hearer) this persuasion is established, that he had received divine inspiration and help.
For it is quite possible that these (celestial) bodies were scattered, not united at the time when the Creator designed and created them, they having these motions, by which—as calculation shows—they must meet each other in one point in such a time (as above mentioned). It would be the same, as if we, e.g. supposed a circle, in different separate places of which we put living beings, of whom some move fast, others slowly, each of them, however, being carried on in equal motions—of its peculiar sort of motion—in equal times; further, suppose that we knew their 10 distances and places at a certain time, and the measure of the distance over which each of them travels in one Nychthemeron. If you then ask the mathematician as to the length of time, after which they would meet each other in a certain point, or before which they had met each other in that identical point, no blame attaches to him, if he speaks of billions of years. Nor does it follow from his account that those beings existed at that (past) time (when they met each other), or that they would still exist at that (future) time (when they are to meet again); but this only follows from his account, if it is properly explained, that, if these beings really existed (in the past), or would still exist (in future) in that same condition, the result (as to their conjunctions) could be no other but that one at which he had arrived by calculation. But then the verification of this subject is the task of a science which was not the science of ’Abu-Ma‘shar.
If, now, the man who uses the cycles (the star-cycles), would conclude that they, viz. the stars, if they stood in conjunction in the first part of Aries, would again and again pass through the same cycles, because, according to his opinion, everything connected with the celestial globe is exempt from growth and decay, and that the condition of the stars in the past was exactly the same, his conclusion would be a mere assumption by which he quiets his mind, and which is not supported by any argument. For a proof does not equally apply to the two sides of a contradiction; it applies only to the one, and excludes the other. Besides it is well known among philosophers and others, that there is no such thing as an infinite evolution of power (δύναμις) into action (πραξις), until the latter comes into real existence. The motions, the cycles, and the periods of the past were computed whilst they in reality existed; they have decreased, whilst at the same time increasing in number; therefore, they are not infinite.
This exposition will be sufficient for a veracious and fair-minded student. But if he remains obstinate, and inclines to the tricks of overbearing people, more explanations will be wanted, which exceed the compass of this book, in order to remove these ideas from his mind, to heal what is feeble in his thoughts, and to plant the truth in his soul. However, there are other chapters of this book where it will be more suitable to speak of this subject than here. The discrepancy of the cycles, not the discrepancy of the observations, is a sufficient argument for—and a powerful help towards—repudiating the follies committed by ’Abu-Ma‘shar, and relied upon by foolish people, who abuse all religions, who make the cycles of Sindhind, and others, the means by which to revile those who warn them that the hour of judgment is coming, and who tell them, that on the day of resurrection there will be reward and punishment in yonder world. It is the same set of people who excite suspicions against—and bring discredit upon—astronomers and mathematicians, by counting themselves among their ranks, and by representing themselves as professors of their art, although they cannot even impose upon anybody who has only the slightest degree of scientific training.
Source: C. Edward Sachau (trans. and ed.), The Chronology of Ancient Nations (London: William H. Allen and Co., 1879), 16-18, 27-31.