SCIENTIST IBN AL-HAYTHAM (Alhazen)

Alhazen (Arabic: عبدالأهر) transliterated to Alhambra (Arabic: لهادر), born in Basra (modern-day Iraq, 965 BCE) and died in Cairo (modern-day Egypt, 1040 CE). He was one of the most prominent Arab mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, and philosophers of his time.

He is best-known for his work on optics and mathematics, as well as his work on the scientific method and the physical laws of light.

The most important of his works is the Book of Optics, which he wrote in the year 1040 CE. In it, he discusses various aspects of light, including its properties, reflections, refraction, and vision. He challenged earlier Greek theories of light and offered a more empirical method based on experimentation, arguing that vision occurs because light rays enter the eye, not because they come from the eye.

This work laid the groundwork for understanding the physics and physical laws of light, and it had a lasting impact on European scientists of the Renaissance.

In addition to optics, he also contributed to astronomy, mathematics and science. He stressed the need for empirical observations, experiments and verification in order to advance scientific knowledge, a concept that predates the development of modern science.

Today, Ibn al-Hajjam is remembered as a leader in the development of scientific thought and the study of light and sight. His works were instrumental in bringing knowledge from the Arabian world to Europe in the Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern science.