4th September), and died A.H. 440, 2. Rajab (A.D. 1048, 11th December), aged seventy-five years.
The first part of his life he seems to have spent in Khwârizm, where he enjoyed the protection of the House of Ma'mûn, the rulers of the country. Originally vassals of the kings of Central Asia of the House of Sâmân, they became independent when the star of their masters began to sink, i.e. between A.H. 384–390. They were, however, not to play a great part in the history of the East, for so early as A.H. 407 their power was crushed by the great Mahmud of Ghazna, and their dominions annexed to his empire. Like Albîrûnî, other scholars also of high standing received protection and favours at the court of the Ma'mûnî princes.
The author is known to have lived some years also in Jurjân, or Hyrcania, on the southern shores of the Caspian sea, under the protection, and perhaps at the court, of Kâbûs ben Washmgîr Shams-alma'âlî, who ruled over Hyrcania and the adjoining countries at two different periods, A.H. 366–371 and 388–403. To this prince he has dedicated the present book, apparently about A.H. 390–391, (A.D. 1000).
During the years A.H. 400–407 he stayed again in his native country at the court of Ma'mûn b. Ma'mûn, as his friend and counsellor. He was a witness of the rebellion that broke out A.H. 407, of the murder of Ma'mûn, and of the conquest of the country by Maḥmûd of Ghazna, who, on returning, carried off him and other scholars to Afghanistan in the spring of A.H. 408.
Among his numerous works, we find mentioned a "Chronicle of Khwârizm," in which he probably had recorded all the traditions relating to the antiquity of his native country, and more especially the history of those events of
