Buku ibnu haitham biography

Ibn al-Haytham did not stick only to the study of philosophy—he discovered his talent for mathematics, and began to delve into the works of the Greek mathematician, Euclid, and later studied works of Archimedes and Ptolemy , summarizing their famous works. As Ibn al-Haytham worked on such treatises, his life took a new direction. Some historians believe his role was as a Financial Minister, while others thought he had been a civil engineer in charge of projects for the public—these speculations were made due to the fact that he had written some books on finance as well as civil engineering.

If he were indeed a civil engineer, it is known that Ibn al-Haytham has shown interest in hydrodynamics and even written books on canals and dams. However, this appointment, Ibn al-Haytham feared, would prove as a hindrance, since he would have much less time to spend on his own interests in the sciences. At around this time, Ibn al-Haytham suffered from some mental illness—it is still under discussion whether or not he faked his illness, but it convinced other government officials to remove him from the position:.

From what is known about his personality and beliefs, it also would have been out of character for Ibn al-Haytham to mislead government officials. He often said that pursuing the truth was most important thing in life. Furthermore, it is possible that his passion for pure learning was so intense that it drove him to perpetrate his scheme.

Ibn al-Haytham knows better than to have refuse an offer by this erratic ruler, though it again interrupted his pursuit of interests in the sciences. He left for Cairo to meet Al-Hakim in late , and arrived there early in In one account of what happened once he got there, he met with Al-Hakim himself and discussed his plans, after which the ruler was very disappointed and ridiculed his plan.

Ibn al-Haytham may have fled to Syria to escape any punishment planned for him. Another account told that Al-Hakim was very pleased with the plan, and allotted all his resources for this project. In this case, Ibn al-Haytham decided to build the dam in the segment of the river in the village of al-Janadil near Aswan, where it will be adequate for the formation of a lake behind the dam.

Once he surveyed the area, however, he found that it is impossible to construct a dam with the resources he had. He decided to abandon the project and flee without informing the ruler, but al-Hakim actually proposed that he be made an officer in his government. Ibn al-Haytham took the position with a feeling of reserve, still fearing that the erratically young ruler may change his mind and punish him.

This position in the government proved even more time consuming than his position in Basra, and some historians suggest he may have had mental illness in this period, for real, or faked. During these ten years under house arrest, Ibn al-Haytham had none of his possessions. Yet, many scholars say he must have written or created at least a part of his most famous books, The Book of Optics and demonstrations to test his hypotheses.

After his release, historians say he supported himself by making copies of manuscripts and selling them. Ibn al-Haytham may have also been a teacher in Cairo. A historian, Ali ibn Zayd al-Bayhaqi, shares a story that reveals the attitude Ibn al-Haytham expressed towards learning. Ibn al-Haytham agreed to tutor the nobleman but demanded one hundred dinars a month for payment.

The price was high, but Surkhab did not hesitate to pay the fee. For three years the Syrian studied with Ibn al-Haytham. At the end of this time, his education complete, Surkhab bid his tutor farewell. Ibn al-Haytham asked the nobleman to wait a moment. Do remember that, in any righteous cause, it is not good to accept a return, a bribe, or a gift.

Ibn al-Haytham was a pioneer in optics, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, physics, and psychology. Al-Haytham also worked on analytical geometry and the beginnings of the link between algebra and geometry. Subsequently, this work led in pure mathematics to the harmonious fusion of algebra and geometry that was epitomised by Descartes in geometric analysis and by Newton in the calculus.

Al-Haytham was a scientist who made major contributions to the fields of mathematics, physics and astronomy during the latter half of the tenth century. According to medieval biographers, Ibn al-Haytham wrote more than works on a wide range of subjects, [9] of which at least 96 of his scientific works are known. Most of his works are now lost, but more than 50 of them have survived to some extent.

Nearly half of his surviving works are on mathematics, 23 of them are on astronomy, and 14 of them are on optics, with a few on other areas of science. These include:. Rosanna Gorini wrote the following on Ibn al-Haytham's introduction of the scientific method:. With his book he changed the meaning of the term optics and established experiments as the norm of proof in the field.

His investigations are based not on abstract theories, but on experimental evidences and his experiments were systematic and repeatable. His contributions to geometry and number theory go well beyond the archimedean tradition. And by promoting the use of experiments in scientific research, al-Haytham played an important part in setting the scene for modern science.

Ibn al-Haytham developed rigorous experimental methods of controlled scientific testing in order to verify theoretical hypotheses and substantiate inductive conjectures. In The Model of the Motions , Ibn al-Haytham also describes an early version of Occam's razor , where he employs only minimal hypotheses regarding the properties that characterize astronomical motions, as he attempts to eliminate from his planetary model the cosmological hypotheses that cannot be observed from Earth.

His seven-volume treatise on optics, Kitab al-Manazir Book of Optics written from to , which has been ranked alongside Isaac Newton 's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica as one of the most influential books ever written in physics, [11] drastically transformed the understanding of light and vision. In classical antiquity, there were two major theories on vision.

The first theory, the emission theory, was supported by such thinkers as Euclid and Ptolemy , who believed that sight worked by the eye emitting rays of light. Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars flocked to the city, where they lived alongside one another and worked together to translate the old knowledge into Latin and then into other European languages.

In his experiments, he observed that light coming through a tiny hole travelled in straight lines and projected an image onto the opposite wall. But he realised that light entering the eye was only the first step in seeing. He built on the work of Greek physician Galen who had provided a detailed description of the eye and the optic pathways. Ibn al-Haytham suggested that only the light rays that hit the surface of the eye head-on would pass into the eye, creating a representation of the world.

It was Kepler in the sixteenth century who corrected this and proposed that the object of sight — what is seen comes from both perpendicular and angular rays that hit the eye to form an inverted image on the retina. Ibn al-Haytham also subscribed to a method of empirical analysis to accompany theoretical postulates that is similar in certain ways to the scientific method we know today.

He realised that the senses were prone to error, and he devised methods of verification, testing and experimentation to uncover the truth of the natural phenomena he perceived. Up until this time, the study of physical phenomena had been an abstract activity with occasional experiments. In search of evidence, Ibn al-Haytham studied lenses, experimented with different mirrors: flat, spherical, parabolic, cylindrical, concave and convex.

His practical results were clear:. It was published as a print edition in so that it could be made more easily available. The Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius chose to honour Ibn al-Haytham, alongside Galileo, in his most famous work on the Moon, Selenographia, published in Some questions Ibn al-Haytham raised remained unsolved for a thousand years.

Ibn al-Haytham solved this problem geometrically but it remained unsolved using algebraic methods until it was finally solved in by the Oxford mathematician Peter M Neumann. And yet, some mysteries remain. This, and other questions in science, has yet to be solved — leaving a legacy of intrigue for us to tackle today. His support for science may have been partly because of his interest in astrology.

Al-Hakim was highly eccentric, for example he ordered the sacking of the city of al-Fustat, he ordered the killing of all dogs since their barking annoyed him, and he banned certain vegetables and shellfish. However al-Hakim kept astronomical instruments in his house overlooking Cairo and built up a library which was only second in importance to that of the House of Wisdom over years earlier.

Our knowledge of ibn al-Haytham's interaction with al-Hakim comes from a number of sources, the most important of which is the writings of al-Qifti. We are told that al-Hakim learnt of a proposal by ibn al-Haytham to regulate the flow of water down the Nile. He requested that ibn al-Haytham come to Egypt to carry out his proposal and al-Hakim appointed him to head an engineering team which would undertake the task.

However, as the team travelled further and further up the Nile, ibn al-Haytham realised that his idea to regulate the flow of water with large constructions would not work. Ibn al-Haytham returned with his engineering team and reported to al-Hakim that they could not achieve their aim. Al-Hakim, disappointed with ibn al-Haytham's scientific abilities, appointed him to an administrative post.

At first ibn al-Haytham accepted this but soon realised that al-Hakim was a dangerous man whom he could not trust. It appears that ibn al-Haytham pretended to be mad and as a result was confined to his house until after al-Hakim's death in During this time he undertook scientific work and after al-Hakim's death he was able to show that he had only pretended to be mad.

According to al-Qifti, ibn al-Haytham lived for the rest of his life near the Azhar Mosque in Cairo writing mathematics texts, teaching and making money by copying texts. Since the Fatimids founded the University of Al-Azhar based on this mosque in , ibn al-Haytham must have been associated with this centre of learning. A different report says that after failing in his mission to regulate the Nile, ibn al-Haytham fled from Egypt to Syria where he spent the rest of his life.

This however seems unlikely for other reports certainly make it certain that ibn al-Haytham was in Egypt in One further complication is the title of a work ibn al-Haytham wrote in which is entitled Ibn al-Haytham's answer to a geometrical question addressed to him in Baghdad. Several different explanations are possible, the simplest of which being that he visited Baghdad for a short time before returning to Egypt.

Buku ibnu haitham biography

He may also have spent some time in Syria which would partly explain the other version of the story. Yet another version has ibn al-Haytham pretending to be mad while still in Basra. Ibn al-Haytham's writings are too extensive for us to be able to cover even a reasonable amount. He seems to have written around 92 works of which, remarkably, over 55 have survived.

The main topics on which he wrote were optics, including a theory of light and a theory of vision, astronomy, and mathematics, including geometry and number theory. We will give at least an indication of his contributions to these areas. A seven volume work on optics, Kitab al-Manazir , is considered by many to be ibn al-Haytham's most important contribution.

It was translated into Latin as Opticae thesaurus Alhazeni in The work begins with an introduction in which ibn al-Haytham says that he will begin "the inquiry into the principles and premises". His methods will involve "criticising premises and exercising caution in drawing conclusions" while he aimed "to employ justice, not follow prejudice, and to take care in all that we judge and criticise that we seek the truth and not be swayed by opinions".

Also in Book I, ibn al-Haytham makes it clear that his investigation of light will be based on experimental evidence rather than on abstract theory. He notes that light is the same irrespective of the source and gives the examples of sunlight, light from a fire, or light reflected from a mirror which are all of the same nature. He gives the first correct explanation of vision, showing that light is reflected from an object into the eye.

Critics are not the only ones praising First Scientist: Ibn al-Haytham; casual readers are lauding it as well. In a 5-star Amazon. A great read. I congratulate Bradley Steffens on writing a fantastic and accurate book. Nor of Ohio adds, "I find the book interesting, for it accords and recognizes a Muslim scientist his proper place as the first scientist who is responsible for advocating experimental work in verifying conceived scientific ideas hypotheses.

It is a nicely written biography of Ibn al-Haytham by a westerner, Bradley Steffens.