SOURCE: "Al-Beruni and the Decline of Science and Technology in Medieval Islam, and His Contributions to Geography, with Special Reference to India," in Afghanistan Journal, Vol. 100, September, 1973, pp. 91-6.

[In the following essay, Ahmad evaluates al-Bīrūnī's accomplishments in geography and astronomy.]

It is well known that science and technology in the time of Medieval Islam passes through various phases of growth and progress from the eighth to the twelfth centuries A.D., but that in the later centuries, the progress was minor compared to that of the earlier stages. In fact, there was a continuous decline through the ninteenth century; in modern times, the study of the sciences has been taken up as a result of the impact of the west and a renaissance in the Islamic world. During this later period while some sciences like geography, navigation, mechanics, and engineering continued to show some...