Al-Biruni

"They [Hindus] totally differ from us in religion, as we believe in nothing in which they believe, and vice versa."

"A Persian by birth, Biruni produced his writings in Arabic, though he knew, besides Persian, no less than four other languages."

"A Persian by birth, a rationalist in disposition, this contemporary of Avicenna and Alhazen not only studied history, philosophy, and geography in depth, but wrote one of the most comprehensive of Muslim astronomical treatises, the Qanun Al-Masudi."

"Biruni, a scholar in many disciplines - from linguistics to mineralogy - and perhaps medieval Uzbekistans most universal genius."

"You well know … for which reason I began searching for a number of demonstrations proving a statement due to the ancient Greeks … and which passion I felt for the subject … so that you reproached me my preoccupation with these chapters of geometry, not knowing the true essence of these subjects, which consists precisely in going in each matter beyond what is necessary. … Whatever way he [the geometer] may go, through exercise will he be lifted from the physical to the divine teachings, which are little accessible because of the difficulty to understand their meaning … and because the circumstance that not everybody is able to have a conception of them, especially not the one who turns away from the art of demonstration."

"I have seen the astrolabe called Zuraqi invented by Abu Said Sijzi. I liked it very much and praised him a great deal, as it is based on the idea entertained by some to the effect that the motion we see is due to the Earths movement and not to that of the sky. By my life, it is a problem difficult of solution and refutation. [...] For it is the same whether you take it that the Earth is in motion or the sky. For, in both cases, it does not affect the Astronomical Science. It is just for the physicist to see if it is possible to refute it."

"Intellectually the most impressive record of any encounter of a pre-­modern Muslim with another civilization is the eleventh-­century polymath Biruni’s account of the high culture of India"