973-1048 Abu Rayhan Al-Beruni. Field of Study: Astronomy, Mathematics, History & Linguistics
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But from this you must not imagine that education was rare among the Muslims. The Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) urged all his followers to seek knowledge even though they might have to travel to far off China. When he began to preach the new faith, there was only a handful of men who could read and write. But this command about the search for knowledge had such a wonderful effect that, in a little over a hundred years after his death, the Muslims held the foremost place in the field of learning. Mosques had very early become centers of education and in time, schools and collages became attached to them. They were not run or aided by the Government, as they are today, but depended mainly on private effort. The teachers were often men of independent means and, therefore, did not want payment for their work. Noble men and well placed officials, including judges sometimes even ministers, took pride in devoting their spare hours to teaching.
This love for knowledge on the part of the Muslims did not grow less when the empire was divided into small kingdoms. On the other hand, surprising as it would seem, it increased. This was because local rulers tried to outdo one another in their encouragement of men of letters. Students and teachers were held in great respect. Even when there were wars between the neighboring chiefs, they were not disturbed, but were allowed to carry on their work in peace. Thus, the advance of learning continued unchecked.
When Al-Beruni was a boy, the region of Khwarizm enjoyed comparative peace under a local ruler of the house of Iraq. Like all other boys of that day, he must have gone to the mosque to read the Quran and to learn Arabic grammar. We know nothing about his first teachers. But whoever they were, they must have been struck by his ability and hard work. Al-Beruni was a Persian. But in those days the language of learning was Arabic. It is a difficult language with a great variety of word-forms and a large vocabulary of words. It is, however, clear that young Al-Beruni must have quite early gained a complete mastery over Arabic. For he soon began to use it to write his learned works and even composed verses in this language.
