Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
A brilliant cross-cultural interpretation of a key text of yoga philosophy
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali is the foundational text of yoga philosophy, used by millions of yoga practitioners and students worldwide. Written in a question-and-answer format, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali deals with the theory and practice of yoga and the psychological question of the liberation of the soul from attachments.
This book is a new rendering into English of the Arabic translation and commentary of this text by the brilliant eleventh-century polymath al-Bīrūnī. Given the many historical variants of the Yoga Sutras, his Kitāb Bātanjali is important for yoga studies as the earliest translation of the Sanskrit. It is also of unique value as an Arabic text within Islamic studies, given the intellectual and philosophical challenges that faced the medieval Muslim reader when presented with the intricacy of composition, interpretation, and allusion that permeates this translation.
An English-only edition.
Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. ca. 442/1050) was an accomplished Iranian scholar and polymath.
David Gordon White (Foreword by)
David Gordon White is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Comparative Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Yoga in Practice and The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography.
Mario Kozah (Translator)
Mario Kozah is Assistant Professor of Islamic History and Civilization at the Department of Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University. His publications include a monograph on al-Bīrūnī titled The Birth of Indology as an Islamic Science: Al-Bīrūnī’s Treatise on Yoga Psychology.