Bīrūnī on the Solar Equation

THIS is a contribution to the story of the transmission of the exact sciences in antiquity. For the early Islamic period most of the Arabic sources have disappeared, and those which survive have been altered by later editors or copyists. Sassanian scientific works are almost completely gone. In attempting eventually to piece together a picture of the interaction between Hellenistic, Hindu, Middle Persian, Islamic, and Byzantine science, we must first cull bits of the mosaic from wherever they are to be found. For such delvings the books of Abti Reihlin al-Birini (ca. 1000) are the scholar's happy hunting ground. The Oriental Publications Bureau of Osmania University in India has made readily available the Arabic text of two hitherto