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Iran / Afghanistan: An astronomical illustration explaining the different phases of the moon by Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni (973-1048 CE)

Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm, died 13 December 1048 in Ghazn, known as Alberonius in Latin and Al-Biruni in English, was an Iranian-Chorasmian Muslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century CE.

Al-Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He was conversant in Chorasmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Turkic, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazni, modern-day Afghanistan, and in 1017 travelled to the Indian subcontinent.

He became the most important interpreter of Indian science to the Islamic world. He is given the titles the 'founder of Indology' and the 'first anthropologist'. He was an impartial writer on custom and creeds of various nations, and was given the title al-Ustdadh ('The Master') for his remarkable description of early 11th-century India. He also made contributions to Earth sciences, and is regarded as the 'father of geodesy' for his important contributions to that field, along with his significant contributions to geography.