SOURCE: "Al-Bīrūnī and Islamic Mysticism," in Hamdard Islamicus, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1978, pp. 53-70.

[In the essay that follows, Lawrence contends that al-Bīrūnī's account of Islamic mysticism, specifically Sūfism, exemplifies his approach to knowledge in general—careful observation and documentation in an attempt to comprehend the unfamiliar.]

Al-Bīrūnī's acquaintance with the concepts of Muslim mystics (hereafter known as Sūfīs) may have been extensive or restricted. Historically, his immediate sources of information on Siufis and Siifism are not known. Yet al-Bīrūnī's encyclopaedic presentation of Indian thought, known as kitāb al-Bīrūnīfītahqīq mā lil-Hind min maqāla maqbūla fi'l 'aql aw mardhūla or simply the India,¹ leaves no doubt that whatever the scope of his acquaintance with tracts on tasawwuf their principal value for him is functional: to provide points of...