Ibn Al Haitham: The Father Of Optics

(The Muslim Scientists Series)

Here’s a brief biography of Ibn al-Haytham:

Full Name: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham
Born: 965 CE, Basra (in present-day Iraq)
Died: 1040 CE, Cairo, Egypt

Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen, was a pioneering Muslim scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. He is often referred to as the “Father of Optics” due to his groundbreaking work in the study of light and vision.

His most famous book, Kitāb al-Manāẓir (Book of Optics), corrected ancient Greek ideas about vision, explaining that the eye receives light from objects rather than emitting rays. His experiments with lenses, mirrors, refraction, and reflection laid the foundations for the modern science of optics and influenced later European scholars such as Roger Bacon and Johannes Kepler.

Beyond optics, Ibn al-Haytham contributed to astronomy, mathematics, physics, and engineering. He emphasized careful observation and experimentation, making him one of the earliest scientists to use a method resembling the modern scientific method.

He lived much of his life in Cairo, under the Fatimid Caliphate, where he wrote over 200 works, though only about 50 survive today.

✅ Legacy: Ibn al-Haytham is celebrated as a key figure of the Islamic Golden Age, whose insights bridged ancient science and modern experimental methods.