Ibn-al-Haytham

Ibn-al-Haytham was born in the city of Basra in Southern Iraq (which was then under the Buyid Emirate), around 965 CE.

After completing his formal education in Basra, he relocated to Cairo, Egypt then ruled by Al-Hakim, the Fatimid Caliph who patronized the sciences, especially astronomy.

It is said that Ibn-Al-Haytham made a proposal to the Caliph to construct a weir (at the same location where Aswan Dam stands today) in order to tame the tumultuous Nile. However, historians and chroniclers are at variance regarding the veracity of the above proposition.

It later dawned on al-Haytham that building a dam over the river may not prevent the waterway from flooding its banks. However, he was terrified of revealing the truth to Al-Hakim who was notorious for his irrational ways and therefore in order to save himself from getting executed, he pretended to be insane.

Al-Haytham was detained in his house from 1011 to 1021, till Al-Hakim died. It was during his detention that he penned the seminal ‘Book of Optics’ which is considered his masterpiece, and also authored pieces on astronomy, philosophy, number theory, and geometry.

Ibn-al-Haytham not only pioneered new theories, concepts, and postulates in geometry, astronomy, natural philosophy, and arithmetic but also gave fresh insight to these disciplines by correcting erroneous propositions believed to be hitherto flawless. However, his most noteworthy contributions were in optics, a branch of physics, and it is epitomized by his magnum opus, the ‘Kitab al-Manazir’.

He was perhaps the first researcher and scientist to stress on the imperativeness of proving a hypothesis or theorem through experiments using scientific methods. In the past, academics and scholars banked on reason and divinity for substantiating a proposition or concept.

Al-Haytham drew inspiration from several Greek, Persian, and Turkish scholars including Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid, Pythagoras, Galen, Abu Sahl al-Quhi, Ibn Sahl, Al-Kindi, Thabit Ibn Qurra, and Banu Musa for his observations.

His works influenced luminaries like Averroes, Omar Khayyam, Taqi-ad-din Muhammad Ibn Mar’uf, Kamal al-din al-Farisi, Johannes Kepler, and Roger Bacon.