KNOWLEDGE FLOWS BETWEEN SOCIETIES: learning from the genius of al-Biruni

The works of Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni (973-1048AD), a Persian polymath scholar who made significant contributions in diverse fields of study, were examined using frameworks of knowledge assets and knowledge flows. The contributions of this great scholar were revisited and the individual, his environment and the link between them were studied. The factors that have contributed to the tremendous achievements in scholarship by the genius of Al- Biruni were found to be the possession of multiple intelligences, a balance of wisdom with an ability to positively influence his environment and a strong Islamic value system within which he operated. The research suggests that possessing multiple intelligences and a balance in wisdom enables the people involved in multi-national, cross-cultural and cross-lingual knowledge transfer to be able to give better form and structure to knowledge enabling easier and better knowledge diffusion. His learning and research methodology was also found to be very conducive to knowledge flows and knowledge transfer in a cross-cultural, global context.