EYE ON SCIENCE

Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center WINTER 2016 | Year 9, Issue 1

THE PEOPLE OF SCIENCE: THE SCIENCE OF THE ARABS BeforeNewton,therewas A BeautifulMind as preciselypossible,forthosewhoseekthetruth. story,and life accurately his as narrating by event this celebrate We optics on treatise seven-volume remarkable his of Once UponaTime Alhazen e cvl evn ad dctd n sai suis n ar and Basra in studies Islamic in educated and servant civil a be personal life;instead,itfocuseson hisintellectualgenius. his about little very say writings however, even his scientist, true a Being Iraq, in youth a as life though an autobiography written by him in the year 1027 still exists. his about known is Little Caliphate. Abbasid the of reign the during Basra, of city the in born was him, dubbed later Latins the as Alhazen or Al-Haytham, Ibn Al-Hassan figure, and a brilliant mind. figure, andabrilliant controversial a polymath, genuine a was He task. feigned Fatimid who the Caliphate, of after failing to scientist accomplish his impossible madness the daring escape to the madness also was He scientific method, and the Father of Modern Optics. The year 2015 marks the 1000 ht s nw aot i ery er i ta h ws asd to raised was he that is years early his about known is What Iraq, as known now is what in ago, years 1000 over little A Alhazen was the Arab scientist who birthed the birthed who scientist Arab the was Alhazen th anniversary since the appearance By: LamiaGhoneim Kitab al-Manazir. nme o te rq Clpae te aii Dnsyt further Dynasty—to Fatimid the bythe pursue hisscientificstudies. Caliphate, ruled Iraqi forEgypt—then the left of and job enemies his quit finally he until began to focus his interest on science and other empirical subjects. golden age of scientific advancements in the Islamic Civilization, he the and nearby region. Surrounded by Basra the culture of learning of in Iraq and the Minister as appointed be to excelling Baghdad, light andvision; hisdeviceiscreditedasthe basis ofphotography.light to translates what heneededtobecomeoneofthegreatestscientistsalltime. just was seclusion The home. his to confined simply and actions his of while known as a patron of science and supporter of scientists, he scientists, was alsoknowntoberuthlessandquiteeccentricthough. of supporter and science of patron a as known while In the Land of theNile In theLandof Prisoner of HisOwnHome Prisoner of Caliphate and was very likely to lose his precious head, Alhazen head, then feignedmadness,inaneffort toescape thefuryof Al-Hakim. precious his lose to likely very was and Caliphate construction require large would requiring idea dam, his equipment thatwasnotavailableatdayandage. huge that a Nile of the implementation down the and up team a with While seemingly feasible on paper, Alhazen realized after travelling his endeavors, and ordered him to undertake the task straight away. water of the Nile in order to minimize flooding; Al-Hakim heard about to berecognizedbythethenreigningFatimidCaliphate, Al-Hakim. scientist, until he gained sufficient fame for his knowledge in physics explained how mirrors work, and argued that light rays can bend when movingthroughdifferentcan mediums,aswater. rays light that argued and work, mirrors how explained the to rays He mattered. ray perpendicular the many only if even seen be could sending eye objects how interpreted which nerve, optical an of existence the confirmed that arguments initial the out a such from reflected was or source beforeitenteredtheeye. source luminous a from came ray light a when place take only would vision that concluded thus, He, that light was a crucial, and independent, part of the visual process. is usedtodaybyscientistsintheirinvestigativeresearch. that method scientific the to birth gave he that, by them; verify and on carefully designed experiments, to test theories and hypotheses emphasis strong a by characterized investigation of methodology previously was misunderstood byreveredthinkersasEuclidandPtolemy. that vision of model correct the demonstrate and light of nature the explain to managed Alhazen life, Al-Hakim’s of researching the behavior andpropertiesoflight:optics. researching thebehavior it painful to look at the Sun? This simple realization catapulted him into to Ibn Al-Haytham; if light comes from our eyes, why, he wondered, is our eyes emitted rays of light, like flashlights. This didbecause not make sense worked sight that was theory their illuminated; themselves, In studying science, he found his true passion and self worth, self and passion true his found he science, studying In Upon realizing he had to report his failure to an unpredictable an to failure his report to had he realizing Upon the of flow the regulate to how studying was Al-Haytham Ibn Al-Hakim himself was interested in science, particularly astronomy; asa grew reputation his and flourished Alhazen Egypt, In Alhazen used a dark chamber he called he chamber dark a used Alhazen set he and lines, straight in travels only light that proved He experiment, and reason both by demonstrate, to managed He a concocted Al-Haytham Ibn dilemma, his solve to order In The prevailing wisdom before him was that we saw what our eyes, rest the for arrest house under being decade, next the Over In a way, he succeeded in his performance, for he was granted leave in Latin, to help explain the nature of nature the explain help to Latin, in camera obscura continued on page23 , which Albeit Almuzlim, 11 | WINTER 2016 A BEAUTIFUL MIND BeforeNewton,therewas A BeautifulMind Alhazen www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk www.britannica.com http://muslimheritage.com http://gulfnews.com References Al-Haytham. Newton Ibn of enlightened books the rather that fell but gravity, about that tree apple the legendary from the not was it two bodies: gravity. between attraction the and bodies of movement the on postulate Al-Haytham’s poie ecinws ae o Ibn on and based equal an reaction—was is there opposite action, every for Al-Haytham’s used eversince. methods and Ibn formulae led engineering which the to of calculus, of aware studies numerous was who Newton, Isaac on influence calculus. great a had He particularly mathematics, about optics and astronomy, he studied and wrote to addition In Asteroid. Alhazen the as well there is the Alhazen Crater on the Moon, as which of 55 he have survived. manuscripts, years, and 96 books total solitary in topics, many on his extensively wrote Renaissance, During Modern European of Optics”. “Father the him the consider who of including those scholars, European influenced actual ideas. his did it as methods his upon much as expounded just which treatise, seven-volume his in culminated work see to solitary of years The reached. had others he what wanted theories he himself; these to only elucidating with satisfied t a tu b sf t cnld that conclude to safe be thus may It In fact, Newton’s Third Law of Motion— of Law Third Newton’s fact, In evident; also is astronomy in legacy His ideas his Through hisBookofOptics, not was al-Haytham Ibn However, ; the Book ofOptics;

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23 | WINTER 2016