ALHAZEN (ABU ALI AL-HASAN IBN ALHASAN)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 658 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: AJA-ALL

ALHAZEN (ABU ALI AL-HASAN IBN ALHASAN) , Arabian mathematician of the 11th century, was born at Basra and died at Cairo in 1038. He is to be distinguished from another Alhazen who translated

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

's Almagest in the loth century. Having boasted that he could construct a machine for regulating the inundations of the Nile, he was summoned to

Egypt

EGYPT

by the caliph Hakim; but, aware of the impracticability of his

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

, and fearing the caliph's anger, he feigned madness until Hakim's death in 1021. Alhazen was, nevertheless, a diligent and successful student, being the first

great

GREAT

discoverer in optics after the time of

Ptolemy

PTOLEMY (
CLAUDIUS
PTOLEMAEUS)

. According to Giovanni Battista della Porta, he first explained the apparent increase of heavenly bodies near the horizon, although

Bacon

gives the credit of this discovery to Ptolemy. He taught, previous to the Polish physicist Witelo, that vision does not result from the emission of rays from the eye, and wrote also on the refraction of light, especially on atmospheric refraction, showing, e.g. the cause of morning and evening twilight. He` solved the problem of finding the point in a convex

mirror

MIRROR (through O. Fr. mirour, mod. miroir, from a sup-posed Late Lat. miratorium, from mirari, to admire)

at which a ray coming from one given point shall be reflected to another given point. His treatise on optics was translated into Latin by Witelo (1270), and afterwards published by F. Risner in 1572, with the title Opticae

thesaurus

THESAURUS (Gr. B17o-avp6s)

Alhazeni libri VII., cum ejusdem libro de crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus. This

work

WORK

enjoyed a

great

GREAT

reputation during the middle ages. Works on geometrical subjects were found in the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris in 1834 by E. A. Sedillot; other manuscripts are pre-served in the Bodleian library at

Oxford

and in the library of Leiden.
See Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hisp. Escur. ; J. E. Montucla, Histoire des mathematiques (1758); and E. A. Sedillot, Materiaux pour l'histoire des sciences mathematiques.

End of Article: ALHAZEN (ABU ALI AL-HASAN IBN ALHASAN)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/AJA_ALL/ALHAZEN_ABU_ALI_AL_HASAN_IBN_A.html">
ALHAZEN (ABU ALI AL-HASAN IBN ALHASAN)
</a>

(Previous)
ALHAMBRA, THE

(Next)
ALI

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email

Sponsored Advertisements

Online First Aid and CPR Certification . DHA Solutions . PB Happy Hour Specials . Improvising Made Easy For Guitar and Bass . The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained . Home Equity Loans . First Aid and CPR Online . San Diego Music Lessons . 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings . Blow Up Your Site (For Free!) . San Diego DUI Lawyers . Jason Gastrich . Jordan Faith Gastrich . Divorce Secrets Revealed . Post Your Ad Link Free . San Diego Soccer Training . JCSM . Download Sermons . Custom Religious Banners, Build A Sign . Christian Singles Dating . Christian T-Shirts . Healing Christian Prayer . Bumper Authority . Personalized Blogs and Email . San Diego Haircuts . The Do the Math Diet . Stop Twitter Spam . Christian Conservative Work at Home Network . The Website of the Lord