Books by Noémie Verdon
Al-Bīrūnī (ca. 973-1050) was an innovative encyclopaedist thinker. He is particularly known to ha... more Al-Bīrūnī (ca. 973-1050) was an innovative encyclopaedist thinker. He is particularly known to have investigated into India of his time. Yet, his life and the circumstances of his encounter with Indian languages, culture and sciences are still shrouded in mystery and legends.
This research brings to light elements of his intellectual journey based on well-grounded analysis so as to contextualise al-Bīrūnī’s work of transmission of Indian philosophies into Arabic. Thanks to a theoretical framework rooted in a multidisciplinary approach, including Translation Studies, it enables to comprehend the full scope of his work and to analyse deeply his motives and choices of interpretation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Cet ouvrage s'adresse à toutes personnes qui pratiquent le tantrisme, aimeraient le pratiquer, ou... more Cet ouvrage s'adresse à toutes personnes qui pratiquent le tantrisme, aimeraient le pratiquer, ou simplement curieuses de ce phénomène en vogue aujourd'hui.
Il vous plonge dans les terres, l'histoire et la culture de l'Inde qui ont donné naissance au tantrisme. Son approche historique, encore inédite, amène à comprendre ses enseignements, un mélange de pratiques et d'attitudes face à la vie qui ont peu à peu teinté la culture de l'Inde, la religion et le yoga.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Papers by Noémie Verdon
Korean Journal of Yoga Studies, 2023
This paper aims to introduce the background information and previous scholarship on al-Bīrūnī’s K... more This paper aims to introduce the background information and previous scholarship on al-Bīrūnī’s Kitāb Sānk (the Book of Sānk) and Kitāb Pātanǧal (the Book of Pātanǧal ) to Korean academia. It first sketches the political and intellectual contexts in which al-Bīrūnī produced his scholarly works. Emphasizing the intellectual exchanges between al-Bīrūnī and Indian scholars, it characterizes the Kitāb Sānk and the Kitāb Pātanǧal as the result of al-Bīrūnī’s understanding and interpretation of the Sāṅkhyakārikā (with a commentary) and the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. As it concludes, the paper overviews possible topics for future researches on
al-Bīrūnī’s indological project.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Yoga L'encyclopédie, 2021
This article in French is meant for a an audience of non-specialist. It highlights in a summarize... more This article in French is meant for a an audience of non-specialist. It highlights in a summarized way how al-Bīrūnī interpreted some of the concepts of Patañjali's text on yoga, as well as the importance of his cultural environment in his choices of interpretation.
This article reflects some ideas I develop in my PhD thesis (to be published soon).
Errata: the legend of the picture (p. 403) should be : "Le Kitāb Pātanjal, traduction arabe du Pātañjala-yoga-śāstra en arabe par al-Bīrūnī"
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Sourcebook for the Shahi Kingdoms, 2021
This research inquiry collects data on the early medieval town of Wayhind/Udabhanda/Hund in Gandh... more This research inquiry collects data on the early medieval town of Wayhind/Udabhanda/Hund in Gandhara (Pakistan, South Asia). It is published in "The Sourcebook for the Shahi Kingdoms", as part of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project (P-31246) Cultural Formation and Transformation: Shahi Art and Architecture from Afghanistan to the West Tibetan Frontier at the Dawn of the Islamic Era (https://shahimaterialculture.univie.ac.at/). The survey retraces how textual and epigraphical sources labeled the town and associated it with political authority. It also questions the designation of the town as a “capital” in later secondary literature and finally ponders the status of Wayhind/Udabhāṇḍa as a political, administrative, and religious center connected to the Śāhi kings.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
History of Science in South Asia, 2020
This article provides an updated English translation of Chapter 14 of al-Bīrūnī's Kitāb taḥqīq mā... more This article provides an updated English translation of Chapter 14 of al-Bīrūnī's Kitāb taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind, in which he lists and describes numerous Sanskrit works related to astronomy, astrology and mathematics, and a few books belonging to other genres. Chapter 14 of Kitāb taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind highlights several types of literature accessed by al-Bīrūnī in the north-west of the Subcontinent in the early eleventh century CE. Whenever possible the English translation is supplemented with annotations on the works mentioned by al-Bīrūnī, and the Appendix offers a comparison of the table of contents of the Brāhmasphutasiddhānta as reported by al-Bīrūnī (in Arabic) and that given in the edition by Dvivedin of the Sanskrit text.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Journal of Hindu Studies, 2019
Five of the extant commentaries on the Sāṃkhyakārikā bear strong resemblances to each other. Thes... more Five of the extant commentaries on the Sāṃkhyakārikā bear strong resemblances to each other. These are the Suvarṇasaptati, Sāṃkhyavṛtti, Gauḍapādabhāṣya, Sāṃkhyasaptativṛtti, and Māṭharavṛtti. Therefore, they are generally considered to share a common origin. These commentaries on the Sāṃkhyakārikā, however, also significantly diverge from each other. This article explores the peculiar connections among the Suvarṇasaptati, Sāṃkhyavṛtti, and Gauḍapādabhāṣya. By focusing on passages that feature metaphors, this article discusses how and why the authors of the Suvarṇasaptati, Sāṃkhyavṛtti, and Gauḍapādabhāṣya may have appropriated portions of their texts or to the contrary dissociated from each other.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
RINDAS working paper 28, 2019
This article examines three passages drawn from al-Bīrūnī’s Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind (Indica) and one ... more This article examines three passages drawn from al-Bīrūnī’s Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind (Indica) and one from his Kitāb Pātanğal (Book Pātanğal). In these passages, the scholar applied a specific terminology belonging to Islamic philosophy and indebted to Aristotle in order to express technical Sāṅkhya and Yoga concepts. His choices of interpretation are rooted
in his intellectual background, such as the Falsafa terminology which he used was part of a shared knowledge among Muslim thinkers of his time. This article provides with a comparative analysis of the Arabic translated terms of the Sanskrit original concepts. It discusses the manner in which al-Bīrūnī interpreted these concepts and the possible reasons which led him to make these interpretive choices. Lastly, it highlights the necessity of examining al-Bīrūnī's transmission of Indian thought by way of his intellectual background.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
East-West Encounter in the Science of Heaven and Earth, 2019
The article presents the way in which al-Bīrūnī described the Indian calendrical system through t... more The article presents the way in which al-Bīrūnī described the Indian calendrical system through three of his works, Al-ātār al-bāqiya, Tafhīm, and Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind and how his knowledge evolved depending upon his sources of information. The interest of al-Bīrūnī in the Indian calendrical system led him to enumerate more than thirty Indian religious festivals fixed by the movements of the moon and the sun. The objective of this article is to offer an overview of these festivals as listed and described by him in his Taḥqīq mā li-l-Hind. This overview leads to some observations with regard to al-Bīrūnīʼs sources of information for his description of these religious celebrations. It appears that he chiefly based his depiction on oral reports. This orality is seen by the way in which Indic terms have been transliterated by al-Bīrūnī into Arabic. This article also highlights the connection between some categories of festivals celebrated by his Indian informants and the society he encountered in South Asia. A large variety of festivals were practiced as rituals, ranging from Dīpāvali and Śivarātri, to Tīj festivals, via celebrations dedicated to Brahmins and ancestors.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, Karin Preisendanz (eds.) Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Wiener Forum für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft,16. Vienna: Vienna University Press by V&R unipress, 2018
In this chapter the thematic focus shifts from the description and analysis of yoga in individual... more In this chapter the thematic focus shifts from the description and analysis of yoga in individual religious and philosophical traditions of premodern South Asia to the cultural transfer of yoga from South Asia to the Arab intellectual world in the Middle Ages. After providing an introduction to the life and work of al-Bīrūnī, the famous Perso-Muslim polymath who lived at the turn of the first millennium CE and spent some years in north-western South Asia, it surveys previous scholarly attempts to identify the Sanskrit source of his Kitāb Pātanğal, an Arab rendering of a yoga work in the tradition of Patañjali. The two authors arrive at the novel hypothesis that al-Bīrūnī may have used the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (i. e., the Yogasuūtra together with the so-called Yogabhāṣya) as the main source of the Kitāb Pātanğal. This finding provides the basis for a new assessment of this work as the result of different literary transformations, some of which necessarily had to be highly creative in order to transfer the philosophical and religious content of a Sanskrit yoga work of the late fourth or early fifth century into the intellectual culture of medieval Islam. Taking into consideration these creative aspects of the Kitāb Pātanğal, Maas and Verdon demonstrate that the aspiration of the Perso-Muslim author was not merely to provide a translation faithful to the wording of its source text, but to make the spiritual dimension of yoga accessible to his Muslim readership.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This research highlights the evolution of early Arabic and Persian geographical accounts of India... more This research highlights the evolution of early Arabic and Persian geographical accounts of India in connection with the different waves of Islamic incursions to the Subcontinent. It then situates al-Biruni's work and knowledge of the geography of India in this context.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Drafts by Noémie Verdon
This is an unpublished draft. If you want to read about that in a finalised and thorough publicat... more This is an unpublished draft. If you want to read about that in a finalised and thorough publication, please have a look on the link associated to this draft paper (mainly ch. 1 and 2).
The paper discusses Bīrūnī's sources of information for the Kitāb al-Hind, the places visited by him, and the circulation of written documents.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
General overview of the life of Bīrūnī, his work.
State of research on him.
Synopsis of the Kit... more General overview of the life of Bīrūnī, his work.
State of research on him.
Synopsis of the Kitāb al-Hind.
The dissertation highlights Bīrūnī's methods and some aspects of the conception of 'otherness' in the Kitāb al-Hind.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Workshops by Noémie Verdon
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Documentary films by Noémie Verdon
This reportage tackles the intricate questions of social discrimination and protest movements in ... more This reportage tackles the intricate questions of social discrimination and protest movements in India.
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The film is a historical documentary tracing the life of al-Biruni through modern Uzbekistan, Ira... more The film is a historical documentary tracing the life of al-Biruni through modern Uzbekistan, Iran and Pakistan. Two Swiss people, Noemie and Vladimir go to the discovery of these cultures and histories, though archaeological sites, meeting scholars and passerby.
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Other works by Noémie Verdon
Negotiating Cultural Identity
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Book contains abstracts of the papers presented in the First Biruni (Al-Biruni) International... more The Book contains abstracts of the papers presented in the First Biruni (Al-Biruni) International Conference with some other features such as massages by dignitaries and brief CV of the participants.
Compiled and edited by Dr. Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This text, chiefly targeting a non academic audience, was written in order to complement the cont... more This text, chiefly targeting a non academic audience, was written in order to complement the content of the film on al-Biruni realised in Summer 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Talks by Noémie Verdon
Yogascapes in Japan. Yoga, Movement and Space, Kyoto, 2018
In this paper, I present and discuss my future project of organizing a 2-week ‘yoga pilgrimage’ t... more In this paper, I present and discuss my future project of organizing a 2-week ‘yoga pilgrimage’ to India with a small group of Swiss nationals, among which some participants are yoga practitioners. The tour is co-organized with a yoga teacher and owner of a relatively well-established school of yoga in Switzerland (www.samgati.ch). The paper describes the circumstances in which the pilgrimage was conceived, the reasons and motives for organizing
such a tour, as well as the different steps for its implementation, such as its promotion and practical organization. This approach poses a number of questions. For instance, the conceptualization of the project is inherently connected to today’s global issues, such as wellness and leisure tourism, and environmental related issues: how does it make sense in the present-day context to journey from Switzerland to India in the name of Yoga and/or of personal development? Other questions considered in this paper focus on the sociological and ideological contexts in which the Yoga pilgrimage is taking place, particularly within the Swiss context. In addition, my position as an Indologist and yoga practitioner entails several other reflections: yoga trainings are often led by teachers whose understandings of yoga differ from that of the academic background through which I examined the complicated and long history of yoga. In this context, organizing a yoga pilgrimage to India necessarily triggers ethical and deontological questions. This paper, then, examines some of the contradictory intersections of this project.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Books by Noémie Verdon
This research brings to light elements of his intellectual journey based on well-grounded analysis so as to contextualise al-Bīrūnī’s work of transmission of Indian philosophies into Arabic. Thanks to a theoretical framework rooted in a multidisciplinary approach, including Translation Studies, it enables to comprehend the full scope of his work and to analyse deeply his motives and choices of interpretation.
Il vous plonge dans les terres, l'histoire et la culture de l'Inde qui ont donné naissance au tantrisme. Son approche historique, encore inédite, amène à comprendre ses enseignements, un mélange de pratiques et d'attitudes face à la vie qui ont peu à peu teinté la culture de l'Inde, la religion et le yoga.
Papers by Noémie Verdon
al-Bīrūnī’s indological project.
This article reflects some ideas I develop in my PhD thesis (to be published soon).
Errata: the legend of the picture (p. 403) should be : "Le Kitāb Pātanjal, traduction arabe du Pātañjala-yoga-śāstra en arabe par al-Bīrūnī"
in his intellectual background, such as the Falsafa terminology which he used was part of a shared knowledge among Muslim thinkers of his time. This article provides with a comparative analysis of the Arabic translated terms of the Sanskrit original concepts. It discusses the manner in which al-Bīrūnī interpreted these concepts and the possible reasons which led him to make these interpretive choices. Lastly, it highlights the necessity of examining al-Bīrūnī's transmission of Indian thought by way of his intellectual background.
Drafts by Noémie Verdon
The paper discusses Bīrūnī's sources of information for the Kitāb al-Hind, the places visited by him, and the circulation of written documents.
State of research on him.
Synopsis of the Kitāb al-Hind.
The dissertation highlights Bīrūnī's methods and some aspects of the conception of 'otherness' in the Kitāb al-Hind.
Workshops by Noémie Verdon
Documentary films by Noémie Verdon
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
Other works by Noémie Verdon
Compiled and edited by Dr. Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah
Talks by Noémie Verdon
such a tour, as well as the different steps for its implementation, such as its promotion and practical organization. This approach poses a number of questions. For instance, the conceptualization of the project is inherently connected to today’s global issues, such as wellness and leisure tourism, and environmental related issues: how does it make sense in the present-day context to journey from Switzerland to India in the name of Yoga and/or of personal development? Other questions considered in this paper focus on the sociological and ideological contexts in which the Yoga pilgrimage is taking place, particularly within the Swiss context. In addition, my position as an Indologist and yoga practitioner entails several other reflections: yoga trainings are often led by teachers whose understandings of yoga differ from that of the academic background through which I examined the complicated and long history of yoga. In this context, organizing a yoga pilgrimage to India necessarily triggers ethical and deontological questions. This paper, then, examines some of the contradictory intersections of this project.
This research brings to light elements of his intellectual journey based on well-grounded analysis so as to contextualise al-Bīrūnī’s work of transmission of Indian philosophies into Arabic. Thanks to a theoretical framework rooted in a multidisciplinary approach, including Translation Studies, it enables to comprehend the full scope of his work and to analyse deeply his motives and choices of interpretation.
Il vous plonge dans les terres, l'histoire et la culture de l'Inde qui ont donné naissance au tantrisme. Son approche historique, encore inédite, amène à comprendre ses enseignements, un mélange de pratiques et d'attitudes face à la vie qui ont peu à peu teinté la culture de l'Inde, la religion et le yoga.
al-Bīrūnī’s indological project.
This article reflects some ideas I develop in my PhD thesis (to be published soon).
Errata: the legend of the picture (p. 403) should be : "Le Kitāb Pātanjal, traduction arabe du Pātañjala-yoga-śāstra en arabe par al-Bīrūnī"
in his intellectual background, such as the Falsafa terminology which he used was part of a shared knowledge among Muslim thinkers of his time. This article provides with a comparative analysis of the Arabic translated terms of the Sanskrit original concepts. It discusses the manner in which al-Bīrūnī interpreted these concepts and the possible reasons which led him to make these interpretive choices. Lastly, it highlights the necessity of examining al-Bīrūnī's transmission of Indian thought by way of his intellectual background.
The paper discusses Bīrūnī's sources of information for the Kitāb al-Hind, the places visited by him, and the circulation of written documents.
State of research on him.
Synopsis of the Kitāb al-Hind.
The dissertation highlights Bīrūnī's methods and some aspects of the conception of 'otherness' in the Kitāb al-Hind.
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
For more information, please check the webpage and contact me !
Compiled and edited by Dr. Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah
such a tour, as well as the different steps for its implementation, such as its promotion and practical organization. This approach poses a number of questions. For instance, the conceptualization of the project is inherently connected to today’s global issues, such as wellness and leisure tourism, and environmental related issues: how does it make sense in the present-day context to journey from Switzerland to India in the name of Yoga and/or of personal development? Other questions considered in this paper focus on the sociological and ideological contexts in which the Yoga pilgrimage is taking place, particularly within the Swiss context. In addition, my position as an Indologist and yoga practitioner entails several other reflections: yoga trainings are often led by teachers whose understandings of yoga differ from that of the academic background through which I examined the complicated and long history of yoga. In this context, organizing a yoga pilgrimage to India necessarily triggers ethical and deontological questions. This paper, then, examines some of the contradictory intersections of this project.