Ibn haytham biography

Scholarly background works in English are Charles Singer, ed. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science, vol.

Ibn haytham biography: Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham was a

George SartonIntroduction to the History of Science, vol. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. More From encyclopedia. About this article Ibn al-Haytham All Sources. Updated Aug 24 About encyclopedia. Related Topics Hussein ibn Mansur al-Hallaj. Ibn al-Banna. Ibn al-Baitar. His methodology of investigation, in particular using experiment to verify theory, shows certain similarities to what later became known as the modern scientific method.

Ibn al-Haytham was born during a creative period known as the golden age of Muslim civilisation that saw many fascinating advances in science, technology and medicine. In an area that spread from Spain to China, inspirational men and women, of different faiths and cultures, built upon knowledge of ancient civilisations, making discoveries that had a huge and often underappreciated impact on our world.

He is known to have said:. Ibn al-Haytham was born in the year in Basra, and died in about in Cairo. He sought experimental proof of his theories and ideas. During many years living in Egypt, ten of which were spent under what we may now call protective custody house arresthe composed one of his most celebrated works, the Kitab al-Manazir, whose title is commonly translated into English as Book of Optics but more properly has the broader meaning Book of Vision.

Ibn al-Haytham made ibn haytham biography advances in optics, mathematics and astronomy. His work on optics was characterised by a strong emphasis on carefully designed experiments to test theories and hypotheses. In that regard he was following a procedure somewhat similar to the one modern scientists adhere to in their investigative research. Ibn al-Haytham experimented to prove that we see because light from objects travels in a straight line into our eyes.

Different views about how the process of vision could be explained had been in circulation for centuries mainly among classical Greek thinkers. Some said rays came out of the eyes, while others thought something entered the eyes to represent an object. But it was the 11th-century scientist Ibn al-Haytham who undertook a systematic critique of these ideas about vision in order to demonstrate by both reason and experiment that light was a crucial, and independent, part of the visual process.

He thus concluded that vision would only take place when a light ray issued from a luminous source or was reflected from such a source before it entered the eye. Out of the 96 books he is recorded to have written; only 55 are known to have survived. Ibn al-Haytham was born after centuries of intense activity in mathematics, astronomy, optics, and other physical sciences.

Ibn Al-Haytham wrote many books on astronomy, physics, and mathematics. Among these books, the most famous book is the Book of Optics. Some of his contributions are:. Ibn al-Haytham invented a working model of Camera obscura that worked on the principles of light. This camera constructed the projection of objects when light from objects entered the hole of the camera.

Ibn haytham biography: Ibn al-Haytham was born

The entered light then projected the inverted image of the actual object inside the camera. We must therefore try to determine which are more likely to be accurate. It is worth commenting that an autobiography written by ibn al-Haytham in survives, but it says nothing of the events his life and concentrates on his intellectual development.

Since the main events that we know of in ibn al-Haytham's life involve his time in Egypt, we should set the scene regarding that country. The Fatimid political and religious dynasty took its name from Fatimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. The Fatimids headed a religious movement dedicated to taking over the whole of the political and religious world of Islam.

As a consequence they refused to recognise the 'Abbasid caliphs. The Fatimid caliphs ruled North Africa and Sicily during the first half of the 10 th century, but after a number of unsuccessful attempts to defeat Egypt, they began a major advance into that country in conquering the Nile Valley. They founded the city of Cairo as the capital of their new empire.

These events were happening while ibn al-Haytham was a young boy growing up in Basra. We know little of ibn al-Haytham's years in Basra. In his autobiography he explains how, as a youth, he thought about the conflicting religious views of the various religious movements and came to the conclusion that none of them represented the truth.

It appears that he did not devote himself to the study of mathematics and other academic topics at a young age but trained for what might be best described as a civil service job. He was appointed as a minister for Basra and the surrounding region. However, ibn al-Haytham became increasingly unhappy with his deep studies of religion and made a decision to devote himself entirely to a study of science which he found most clearly described in the writings of Aristotle.

Having made this decision, ibn al-Haytham kept to it for the rest of his life devoting all his energies to mathematics, physics, and other sciences. Ibn al-Haytham went to Egypt some considerable time after he made the decision to give up his job as a minister and to devote himself to science, for he had made his reputation as a famous scientist while still in Basra.

We do know that al-Hakim was Caliph when ibn al-Haytham reached Egypt. Al-Hakim was the ibn haytham biography of the Fatimid caliphs to begin his reign in Egypt; al-Aziz was the first of the Fatimid caliphs to do so. Al-Aziz became Caliph in on the death of his father al-Mu'izz. He was very involved in military and political ventures in northern Syria trying to expand the Fatimid empire.

For most of his 20 year reign he worked towards this aim. Al-Aziz died in while organising an army to march against the Byzantines and al-Hakim, who was eleven years old at the time, became Caliph. Al-Hakim, despite being a cruel leader who murdered his enemies, was a patron of the sciences employing top quality scientists such as the astronomer ibn Yunus.

His support for science may have been partly because of his interest in astrology. Al-Hakim was highly eccentric, for example he ordered the sacking of the city of al-Fustat, he ordered the killing of all dogs since their barking annoyed him, and he banned certain vegetables and shellfish. However al-Hakim kept astronomical instruments in his house overlooking Cairo and built up a library which was only second in importance to that of the House of Wisdom over years earlier.

Our knowledge of ibn al-Haytham's interaction with al-Hakim comes from a number of sources, the most important of which is the writings of al-Qifti.

Ibn haytham biography: Ibn al-Haytham was a mathematician

We are told that al-Hakim learnt of a proposal by ibn al-Haytham to regulate the flow of water down the Nile. He requested that ibn al-Haytham come to Egypt to carry out his proposal and al-Hakim appointed him to head an engineering team which would undertake the task. However, as the team travelled further and further up the Nile, ibn al-Haytham realised that his idea to regulate the flow of water with large constructions would not work.

Ibn al-Haytham returned with his engineering team and reported to al-Hakim that they could not achieve their aim.