The Month in light

Ibn Al-Haytham and the Legacy of Arabic Optics

The year 2015 marks the 1000th anniversary since the appearance of the remarkable seven volume treatise on optics Kitab al-Manazir written by the Arab scientist Ibn al-Haytham. Born around a thousand years ago in present day Iraq, Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (known in the West by the Latinised form of his first name, initially “Alhacen” and later “Alhazen”) was a pioneering scientific thinker who made important contributions to the understanding of vision, optics and light. 

A global campaign produced by 1001 Inventions and King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in partnership with UNESCO and the International Year of Light 2015

Out of the 96 books he is recorded to have written; only 55 are known to have survived. Those related to the subject of light included: The Light of the Moon, The Light of the Stars, The Rainbow and the Halo, Spherical Burning Mirrors, Parabolic Burning Mirrors, The Burning Sphere, The Shape of the Eclipse, The Formation of Shadows, Discourse on Light, as well as his masterpiece, Book of Optics.  Latin translations of some of his works are known to have influenced important Medieval and European Renaissance thinkers like Roger Bacon, René Descartes and Christian Huygens, who knew him as “Alhazen”. The crater Alhazen on the Moon is named in his honour, as is the asteroid 59239Alhazen.

• Born in 965 in Basra, during the intellectual heyday of Muslim civilisation.
• Invited to Egypt to help build a dam on the Nile.  After a field visit, he declined to proceed with the project causing him to end up in what we now call -protective custody for 10 years.
• From his observations of light entering a dark room, he made major breakthroughs in understanding light and vision.
• His discoveries led him to make significant revision to ancient views about how our eyes see.
• Through his studies of earlier work by Galen and others, he gave names to several parts of the eye, such as the lens, the retina and the cornea.
• He set new standards in experimental science and completed his great Book of Optics sometime around 1027.
• He died at the age of 74 in around the year 1040.
• His Book of Optics was translated into Latin and had a significant influence on many scientists of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment.  For example, the optics book Perspectiva was authored around 1275 by Erazmus Witelo, who later was called "Alhazen's Ape" when people realised he had largely copied al-Haytham’s Book of Optics.

For more details visit.

http://www.ibnalhaytham.com/

http://www.light2015.org/Home/ScienceStories/1000-Years-of-Arabic-Optics.html