Book of Optics

Cover page for Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics in the print edition from 1572[1]
AuthorIbn al-Haytham
Original titleكتاب المناظر
LanguageArabic
Published1011 to 1021
Front page of the Latin Opticae Thesaurus, which included Alhazen's Book of Optics, showing rainbows, the use of parabolic mirrors to set ships on fire, distorted images caused by refraction in water, and other optical effects.

The Book of Optics (Arabic: كتاب المناظر, romanized: Kitāb al-Manāẓir; Latin: De Aspectibus or Perspectiva; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Arab scholar Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen (965–c. 1040 AD).

The Book of Optics presented experimentally founded arguments against the widely held extramission theory of vision (as held by Euclid in his Optica), and proposed the modern intromission theory, the now accepted model that vision takes place by light entering the eye.[2]: 60–7. [3][4][a][b] The book is also noted for its early use of the scientific method, its description of the camera obscura, and its formulation of Alhazen's problem. The book extensively affected the development of optics, physics and mathematics in Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries.[5]

  1. ^ Friedrich Risner, publ. 1572. Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis Libri Septem Nunc Primum Editi, Eiusdem Liber De Crepusculis Et Nubium Asensionibus . Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni Libri X. e-rara link. See Sabra, the authorship of Liber de crepusculis
  2. ^ D. C. Lindberg (1976), Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-48234-0
  3. ^ Nader El-Bizri, 'A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15 (2005), 189–218
  4. ^ Alhacen (2001). Smith, A. Mark (ed.). Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen's "De Aspectibus", the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's "Kitāb al-Manāẓir". Vol. 1: Introduction and Latin text; Vol. 2: English translation. Translated by A. Mark Smith. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-914-1. OCLC 47168716.
  5. ^ (Smith 2001, p. lxxix)


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).