The birth of indology as an Islamic science
Subtitle: Al-Biruni's treatise on yoga psychology
By: by Mario Kozah
Series: Islamic philosophy, theology, and science: text and studies -- v. 97
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
ISBN-13: 9789004290297; 9789004305540
Subjects: History; Civilization; Yoga; Study and teaching; Indian philosophy
Description: In 'The birth of indology as an Islamic science' Mario Kozah closely examines the pioneering contribution by Biruni (d. ca. 1048) to the study of comparative religion in his major work on India. Kozah concludes that a process of Islamisation is employed through a meticulous systematization of Hindu beliefs into one Indian religion, preceding by almost a millennium the earliest definitions of Hinduism by nineteenth-century European Orientalists. This formulation of Hinduism draws on Biruni's interpretation of Yoga psychology articulated in the 'Kitab Batanjal', his Arabic translation of the 'Yoga-Sutra' of Patañjali. Biruni's Islamic reading of Hinduism relies on certain common denominators that he identifies as being of fundamental importance. In the case of Hinduism he identifies metempsychosis as its unifying banner.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Al-Biruni: prologues and method; title: Hindu metaphysics according to the Hind; title: Al-Nafs: the soul in Kitab Batanjal; title: Kitab Batanjal: the preface and sections I-III; title: Section IV of Kitab Batanjal: liberation and unification, a reading; title: Al-Nafs: the soul in the Hind.