دار بيبليون
Foreword, by Dr. Lwiis Saliba of the 2nd edition of his book Hinduism and its influence on Muslim thought
Foreword to the 2nd edition
This modest contribution to the study of Bîrûnî ended up quickly finding its way to the readers’ libraries. The first edition of the book was sold out within two years.
So what caused the delay in publishing a new edition?
At first I had the intention to complete this study with other quotations of Bîrûnî by translating them from Arabic, but other projects of books completely took me, and I almost forgot this study which was in fact my 1st book. Only the orders of the readers of this out-of-print book reminded me from time to time of him.
And finally I gave in to their wishes by bringing out a new edition, with a supplement and appendices.
I am delighted that this essay on Bîrûnî has met with some success. And I hope to bring out soon in French other later studies on this eminent scholar that I have already published in Arabic.
Why the supplement added to this new edition?
The objective of this supplement is to offer original texts of Bîrûnî with French translation. In my studies, research and teaching I have realized the importance for Arabic speakers and students in the fields of Islamic studies of presenting the texts of the sources in bilingual form: the original language with an adequate translation.
The Arabic speakers will thus have access to the sources with an aid that could clear up many difficulties in understanding an ancient and classical text: translation.
The selection of the Bîrûnî’s texts has been made with the aim of covering, as much as possible, the totality of his works and the different milestones of his thought. Thus, the reader will find in what follows representative samples of the thought and contribution of this thinker and scholar in all the fields he conquered: Indian studies, comparative religions of which he was a precursor, mineralogy, geology, pharmacy, astronomy, philosophy of history and geography.
The titles I have proposed for the texts would facilitate access to them.
In all these various domains, Bîrûnî had important contributions which require thorough research to make them clear. But this is not our objective. Our goal is limited to letting this scholar present himself through his own texts, as diverse as they are.
These original texts of Bîrûnî with their translation offer to the researcher a foretaste, which could be a good beginning to more advanced studies, and to the interested reader a global idea of the extent of the thought and the methodology of a scholar who marked by his contributions and discoveries the history of science and religious thought.
And finally, the studies on Bîrûnî, and especially on the Indian influences on Muslim thought, have not been sufficiently exploited up to now. I hope that in the future they will arouse more interest at the level of both researchers and readers.
Lwiis Saliba
Paris on 01/06/2008