Born : c. 965 (c. 354 AH), Basra, Iraq
Died : c. 1040 (c. 430 AH)[2] (aged around 75)
Fields: Optics, Astronomy, Mathematics.
Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinized as Alhazen /ælˈhæzən/; full name Abū ʿAlī
al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham أبو علي،
الحسن بن الحسن بن الهيثم; c. 965 – c. 1040) was an Arab
mathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age. Also
sometimes referred to as "the father of modern optics", he made
significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in
particular, his most influential work being his Kitāb al-Manāẓir (كتاب المناظر, "Book of Optics"), written
during 1011–1021, which survived in the Latin edition. A polymath, he also
wrote on philosophy, theology and medicine.
Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light
reflects from an object and then passes to one's eyes. And he was the first to
point out that vision occurs in the brain, rather than in the eyes. He was also
an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by
experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—hence
understanding the scientific method five centuries before Renaissance
scientists.
Born in Basra, he spent most of his productive period in the Fatimid
capital of Cairo and earned his living authoring various treatises and tutoring
members of the nobilities. Ibn al-Haytham is sometimes given the byname
al-Baṣrī after his birthplace, or al-Miṣrī ("of Egypt"). Ibn
al-Haytham was nicknamed the "Second Ptolemy" by Abu'l-Hasan Bayhaqi,
and "The Physicist" by John Peckham. Ibn al-Haytham paved the way for
the modern science of physical optics.
Biography
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was born c. 965 to an Arab family in Basra, Iraq,
which was at the time part of the Buyid emirate. He held a position with the
title vizier in his native Basra, and made a name for himself for his knowledge
of applied mathematics. As he claimed to be able to regulate the flooding of
the Nile, he was invited to by Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim in order to realise a
hydraulic project at Aswan. However, Ibn al-Haytham was forced to concede the
impracticability of his project. Upon his return to Cairo, he was given an
administrative post. After he proved unable to fulfill this task as well, he
contracted the ire of the caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and is said to have
been forced into hiding until the caliph's death in 1021, after which his
confiscated possessions were returned to him. Legend has it that Alhazen
feigned madness and was kept under house arrest during this period. During this
time, he wrote his influential Book of Optics. Alhazen continued to live in
Cairo, in the neighborhood of the famous University of al-Azhar, and lived from
the proceeds of his literary production until his death in c. 1040. (A copy of
Apollonius' Conics, written in Ibn al-Haytham's own handwriting exists in Aya
Sofya: (MS Aya Sofya 2762, 307 fob., dated Safar 415 a.h.).
Among his students were Sorkhab (Sohrab), a Persian from Semnan, and Abu
al-Wafa Mubashir ibn Fatek, an Egyptian prince.
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