Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Bīrūnī (Persian: ابوریحان محمد بن احمد بیرونی‎), often known as Alberuni, Al Beruni or variants, (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm (now in Uzbekistan), died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni, today's Afghanistan) was a Persian Muslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century.