When the Budhha Met the Prophet

The Sindhi delegation

        The year is 773 CE. Raja of Sindh sends a delegation laden with rich gifts to the court of Abbasid Caliph Mansur in the recently established Arab capital of Baghdad(Also the capital of modern day Iraq). Among all the gifts, one is particularly anticipated, it is a Sanskrit manuscript dealing with the subjects like Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology and accompanied by Brahmins and Pandits of Ujjain to explain it to the Arabs. The Arabs called it "Sindhind". Little did they know that they were dealing with the workings of one of the greatest scientific minds of ancient India. It was the "Sidhhant" of Brahmagupta. 

       Caliph Mansur who was a great patron of science and literature immediately ordered his principal scientific advisor al-Fazari to translate the work into Arabic. 

        But there was somebody in the court of the Islamic capital who didn't need Arabic translation and could very well read and understand Sanskrit. It was the chief vizier Khalid-ibn-Barmak.

Caliph al-Mansur(754-75 CE)

The House of Barmak

       The chief vizier Khalid belonged to a once Budhhist Barmakid family of Balkh in modern day Afghanistan. His father Barmak was a physician and the chancellor of the Nav-Vihar monastery of Balkh, known as the Nalanda of the Central Asia. Barmak had studied philosophy, astrology and medicine in the valleys of Kashmir.

        When the Arabs conquered Afghanistan, Barmak converted to Islam and was employed in the Arab service. The name Barmak is the arabized version of the Sanskrit word "Pramukh" meaning the leader. 

       Later on the Barmakids rose in ranks in the service of the successive line of Caliphs eventually becoming the chief ministers or Viziers.

    Although now Muslims, The Barmakids still had the deep fondness of their ancient roots, so much so that their rivals in the court gossiped that they would smile in excitement even at the mention of Indian religions!

The ruins of Nav-Vihar monastery

Knowledge finds the way!

    The Barmakid Viziers eventually paved the way for a large scale translation project of Indian works mainly on Mathematics which included decimal system, use of zero, algebra, works on Astronomy such as  Surya Sidhhant of Aryabhatt, works on medicine like Charak Samhita and Sushrut Samhita, Stories like Panchtantra etc.

      Khalid ibn Barmak even helped the Caliph Mansur in designing the ground plan of the new capital city Medinat al-Salam(city of peace), popularly known as Baghdad. It is hardly a coincidence that the ground plan of the 8th century Baghdad looks strikingly similar to the Mandala art of the Tantric Budhhism as it was a popular Budhhist practice to design buildings based on the Mandala patterns. Kesariya stup in Bihar and Borobudur temple of Java are examples of it.

Budhhist Mandala art(left), plan of Baghdad(right)

The Leap of Europe

     Leonardo Fibonacci, a 13th century Italian mathematician of Pisa (famous for Fibonacci series) learned the Arab mathematics and wrote Liber Abaci i.e. The book of calculations. This was Europe's one of the earliest encounters with the knowledge of the East. 

    Leonardo learnt about the Indian numerals which were popularized in Europe as the Arab numerals. The Arab word "al-sifr" or "zephyr" became today's "Zero". 

     This along with many other Indian works(of course Greek and Chinese too) were later on translated from Arabic into languages like Hebrew and Latin which eventually fuelled what is known as the European Renaissance or the age of awakening.

And that is how when the Budhha met the Prophet, the Christ was illuminated!

References:-

1. The Golden road: How Ancient India transformed the world (William Dalrymple)

2. In the shadow of the sword: the birth of Islam and the rise of the global Arab Empire (Tom Holland)

3. The Abbasid caliphate: a history (Tayyib al-Hibri)

4. In God's path: the Arab conquests and creation of an Islamic empire (Robert Hoyland)

5. Caliph's splendor: Islam and the West in the Golden age of Baghdad (Benson Bobrick)