Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) |
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Born |
c. 965(c. 354 AH) Basra, Iraq |
Died |
c. 1040(c. 430 AH) Cairo, Egypt |
Residence | |
Known for | Book of Optics, Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, Alhazen's problem, Analysis,Catoptrics,Horopter, Moon illusion, experimental science, scientific methodology,visual perception, empirical theory of perception, Animal psychology |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Influences | Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, Banū Mūsā, Thābit ibn Qurra, Al-Kindi, Ibn Sahl, Abū Sahl al-Qūhī |
Influenced | Omar Khayyam, Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, Averroes, Al-Khazini, John Peckham, Witelo, Roger Bacon,Kepler |
Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Latinized Alhazen/ˌælˈhɑːzən/; 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 Arabmathematician, astronomer, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age. Sometimes called "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 bounces on an object and then is directed to one's 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.