Mahmud of Ghazni carries off al-Biruni
A conqueror takes scholars as booty and sends Biruni to India
In 1017 Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Khwarazm and took the scholars of its court to Ghazni; Avicenna fled, but the Khwarazm-born al-Biruni went. Following the campaigns to India, he learned Sanskrit, wrote a pioneering study of Indian science and beliefs, and measured the Earth's radius.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 11th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 1000 Stephen I, first king of Hungary — 17 years earlier
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 1037 Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1010 Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh — 7 years earlier
- 1025 Avicenna's Canon of Medicine — 8 years later
Africa
- c. 1000 Extinction of the elephant birds — 17 years earlier
- 1006 Supernova SN 1006 — 11 years earlier
Americas
- 1021 Norse in North America — 4 years later
Alive at the time
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (aged 37)
- Ferdowsi (aged 77)
- Leif Erikson (aged 47)
- Yaroslav the Wise (aged 39)
- Cnut the Great (aged 22)
- Edward the Confessor (aged 14)
- Sei Shōnagon (aged 51)
- Robert II the Pious (aged 45)
- Al-Biruni (aged 44)
- Henry II (aged 44)