¹ Much has been written on the pronunciation of al-Bīrūnī's name, whether it is Bairūnī, Berūnī, or Bīrūnī. The choice of Bīrūnī seems most plausible, however, as shown by the arguments presented in the Al-Bīrūnī Commemoration Volume (Calcutta, 1951) and 'Alī Akbar Dehkhodā, Sharhi hāl-i nābighih-i shahīr-i Irān… Bīrūnī (Tehran, 1324 [1945]). Also, we have used the Arabic article "al" because although he was a Persian he wrote almost always in Arabic and referred to himself and was known as al-Bīrūnī throughout most centuries of Islamic history. In Persia he is referred to simply as Bīrūnī.

² For a discussion of the lost philosophical works of al-Bīrūnī, see Dhabīhallāh Safā, "Barkhī az nazarhā-yi falsafiyi Abū Raihān," Indo-Iranica, 5:6 (1952).

³ For the biography of al-Bīrūnī, see Dehkhod...