Zahir al-Din Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Zayd-i Bayhaqi ( fa, ظهیرالدین ابوالحسن علی بن زید بیهقی;
c. 1097 – 1169) also known as Ibn Fondoq (ابن فندق) was an Iranianpolymath and historian of Arab descent. He is the author of '' Tarikh-i Bayhaq''.
Ancestry
Bayhaqi was a descendant of
Khuzaima ibn Thabit
Khuzayma ibn Thabit Dhu al-Shahadatayn al-Ansari ( ar, خزيمة بن ثابت ذو الشهادتين الأنصاري, Khuzayma ibn Thābit Dhū al-Shahādatayn al-Anṣārī; d. July 657) was one of the companions of the Islamic prophet, Muham ...
(died 657), a companion of Muhammad. Most of his forefathers were either judges or Imams.
Biography
Bayhaqi was born in Sabzevar, in northeastern Iran, the main city of the Bayhaq district, where his father’s estates were located.
In 1114, Bahyaqi along with his father visited Omar Khayyam, the famous Persian mathematician and astronomer, in
Nishapur
Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wr ...
and while there Bayhaqi began his education in literature and science. He moved to Marv to complete his studies in Islamic jurisprudence by 1123. He returned to Nishapur in c.1127 where according to Yaqut al-Hamawi, his studies were "interrupted by marriage".
Bayhaqi became the qadi of Bayhaq through the efforts of his father-in-law, Shehab-al-Din Moḥammad b. Mas'ud, along with patronage from the Seljuq Sultan Sanjar. He may have made some enemies while in charge, he soon grew tired and resigned.
Bayhaqi then traveled to Ray and devoted himself to
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
and astrology, and later studied in Nishapur to improve his understanding of astrology. While living in Sarakhs he squandered all of his money, and returned to Nishapur.
After an attempt to establish himself in Bayhaq failed "because of his relatives’ envy", Bayhaqi finally returned again to Nishapur and settled down to life in the seminary and the mosque.
In 1148, Demetrius I of Georgia presented inquiries ("of unknown purport") in Syriac and Arabic to