corundum, history.1, gems, Arabic mineralogy, early lapidaries

Wiedemann examines geographical material contained in al-Bīrūnī’s al-Qānūn al-Masʿūdī (Masʿūdī Canon), drawing attention to the breadth and precision of geographical knowledge incorporated into this major eleventh-century astronomical work. He discusses al-Bīrūnī’s treatment of places and regions, geographical coordinates, distances, and methods for determining latitude and longitude, illustrating the close relationship between astronomy, mathematical geography, and geographical observation in medieval Islamic science. The study translates and comments on selected passages of the Qānūn, making material from al-Bīrūnī’s Arabic text accessible to German readers and demonstrating his extensive use of earlier geographical traditions together with observations and calculations of his own.