How Islam changed medicine: Ibn al-Haytham and optics

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.120-a

BMJ 2006;332:120 (14 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7533.120-a

Letter

How Islam changed medicine

Ibn al-Haytham and optics

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—Majeed elaborated on the role of Muslim physiciansand scholars in modern medicine and mentioned the contributionsof various Arab doctors during the middle ages.¹ Here is a contributionto optics.

Ibn al-Haytham (known to the West as Alhacen or Alhazen) livedfrom 965 to about 1040. He was a distinguished mathematician,astronomer, and philosopher of his time, and he became knownin Europe as the author of a monumental book on optics, Kitabal-Manazir (translated into Latin as De Perspectiva or De Aspectibus²and partly translated into English as The Optics³). Ibn al-Haythamdescribed in detail the various parts of the eye and introducedthe idea that objects are seen by rays of light emanating fromthe objects and not the eyes, as was popularly believed at thetime, following Ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of vision. "Sightperceives the light and colour existing on the surface of the. . . [Full text of this article]