Monday, July 15, 2019

IBN-HAYTHAM
Medieval anatomist, optometrist, mathematician and scholar


Guest author
Prof. Abdul Latif
Aligarh
India



Abu Ali al-Hasan bin al-Hasan bin al-Haytham, commonly referred to by his Latinized names Alhazen, Alhacen or Alhazeni, was a 10th century anatomist, optometrist, mathematician, astronomer and scholar.



Al-Haytham was born in Basra, Iraq in 965 CE. He studied in Basra, Baghdad and probably in Cairo, a city where he ostensibly passed away in 1040.

While living in Cairo under house arrest and feigning madness, he wrote a seminal treatise on optics called the Kitab Al Manazir (Book of optics).

This milestone in optics is significant as it demolished old concepts of Euclid and Ptolemy and laid the foundation for succeeding works such as those by Roger Bacon (“who quotes or refers Ibn-Haytham at almost every step in the parts of Opus Maius”) and also on Johannes Kepler’s study of light.

Kitab al-Manazir was written in 1015 and to celebrate its 1000th anniversary UNESCO declared 2015 as the “Year of Light”.


The American-Belgian chemist and historian, George Sarton has called him “the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all time. Whether it is in England or far away Persia, all drank from the same fountain”.

Ibn-Haytham also presented tables of angles of incidence and refraction, a concept similar to the law of constancy of ratio of sines attributed to Snell.

These principles are still relevant today every time gonioscopy is performed.

https://ourgsc.blogspot.com/search?q=gonio 

Ibn-Haytham also described the appearance of the image of the moon on a wall of a darkened room. This is the first description of the “camera obscura” or dark chamber- a principle on which photography is founded.


Ibn-Haytham is also credited with the terms relating to ocular structures such as “cornea”, “retina” and “vitreous humor”, which are still in use.

In conclusion, the priceless contribution and works of this medieval scientist deserve our greatest appreciation. Ophthalmology and optics will forever be indebted to Ibn-Haytham.



2 comments:

  1. Really very interesting & superb information on Ibn-Haytham.UNESCO
    had observed International year of Light in 2015 in the giant work of
    Ibn-Haytham. He was a great Scientist & Physician of his time.
    Prof.AbdulLatif

    ReplyDelete
  2. I second Professor Abdul Latif.Glog is undoubtedly information filled.
    Can you please suggest a treatment for a patient who suffered from peripheral neural stroke earlier and now having Glaucoma in the left eye.

    ReplyDelete

HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL OPHTHALMOLOGY

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