SOURCE: "The Life, Works, and Significance of al-Bīrūnī" and "The Creation of the World and Its Subsequent History," in An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: Conceptions of Nature and Methods Used for Its Study by the Ikhwan Al-Safa, Al-Bīrūnī, and Ibn Sina, State University of New York Press, 1993, pp. 107-21.

[In the essay that follows, Nasr provides biographical and textual information on al-Bīrūnī and discusses al-Bīrūnī's understanding of history and philosophy.]