Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics
c. 1021 · Work
Traditionally said to have been written under house arrest in Cairo — legend has him rashly promising the caliph he could regulate the Nile — Ibn al-Haytham's seven-book Optics proves vision happens by light entering the eye, explains the camera obscura, and insists every claim be tested by experiment. It is the strongest early statement of the scientific method itself; Kepler was still working from it six centuries later.
On these timelines: The Islamic Golden Age, Master, Science & Technology, Arts and Thoughts
More from The Islamic Golden Age
- Islamic Golden Age (750)
- The Graeco-Arabic translation movement (750)
- al-Khwarizmi's al-Jabr (820)
- Papermaking spreads west (751)
- Avicenna's Book of Healing (1027)
- Al-Khwarizmi's book on Hindu numerals (825)
- Averroes's The Incoherence of the Incoherence (1180)
- Al-Biruni measures the Earth from a mountain (1025)
Around 1021
- Norman Conquest of England (1066)
- East–West Schism (1054)
- Christianisation of Kievan Rus' (988)
- Founding of the Capetian dynasty (987)
- Reign of William the Conqueror (1066)
- Battle of Hastings (1066)
- Bi Sheng invents movable type (1040)
- Battle of Manzikert (1071)
- William the Conqueror (1028)
- The Tale of Genji (1008)