Question

Al-Biruni a traveller from ______ visited India more than a thousand years ago
A. China
B. Persia
C. Egypt
D. Uzbekistan

Answer 1

Hint:He visited India during the 11th century. He wrote extensively about the religious and cultural aspects of the people of India. He also wrote about the divide and conflict between the Hindu and Islamic community in his book.

Complete answer:
Abū Rayhān Al-Bīrūnī, better known simply as Al-Biruni, was an Iranian scholar and Polymath. He lived during the Islamic Golden age (8th to 14th century). He travelled to the Indian subcontinent in 1017. He explored the Hindu faith practiced in India and authored a study of Indian culture Tārīkh al-Hind (History of India). He was very learned regarding physics, astronomy, mathematics, and natural sciences. Other than as a traveller, he is also known as a historian, linguist and chronologist.

A. Al-Biruni was not from China. The notable travellers from China were the Buddhist scholars Xuanzang (alternately spelled Hiuen Tsang) and Faxian (alternately spelled Fa Hien).
B. Al-Biruni was not from Persia. The traveller who came to India from Persia was the scholar Abdur Razzak.
C. Al-Biruni was not from Egypt. The traveller Ibn Battuta was from Morocco, which is the neighbouring country of Egypt.
D. Al-Biruni was from Uzbekistan. Therefore this is the correct option.

Hence the correct answer is option D.

Note:Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Bīrūnī is his full name in Arabic.
Due to the scholarly books he wrote, he is often called by various titles like the "founder of Indology", "Father of modern geodesy", "Father of Comparative Religion", and the first anthropologist.
Uzbekistan is the modern name of the area which was then under the rule of the Afrighid Dynasty.
India was visited by envoys and travellers from various countries like Megasthenes from Greece, Al-Masudi from Arab, Nicolo Conti from Italy, Marco Polo from Venice etc.