Ibn al-Haytham, Father of optics: Scholar in Islamic History

Scholar

ScholarFather of optics

Ibn al-Haythamابن الهيثم

c. 965-1040 CEApproximate dateCairo

A scholar of Basra and Cairo who showed that we see by light entering the eye.

Later biographers say he feigned madness to escape a task from the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, regulating the Nile, and used his confinement to study light. His Book of Optics tested ideas by experiment, using a dark room with a pinhole: the camera obscura.

What grew out of it?

Latin translations shaped Roger Bacon, Kepler and the experimental method.

Where do they appear in the story?

Who else is linked?

Cairo and Fustat Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Fatimid Caliphate

Who lived at the same time?

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Al-Qadir Hisham II Mahmud of Ghazna Al-Mansur ibn Abi Amir Sebuktigin Al-Aziz Billah Al-Tai

Source: history · Wikipedia

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