Character Catalog

Masterwork in seven volumes covering vision, light, mirrors, and refraction. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, it became the major optical reference of medieval Europe and the Renaissance.

A short treatise complementary to the Kitab al-Manazir in which Ibn al-Haytham explores in greater depth the nature of light and its spherical propagation from luminous sources.

A methodical critique of the Ptolemaic astronomical model, in which Ibn al-Haytham demands that any model conform to observations and physical logic, anticipating the Copernican revolution.

A camera obscura demonstration that the shape of sunlight during a partial eclipse is a crescent, thereby proving the rectilinear propagation of light.

A study of converging lenses and the concentration of sunlight. Ibn al-Haytham lays out the theoretical foundations that would eventually lead to the manufacture of magnifying glasses and spectacles.

A cosmological work aimed at making the model of celestial spheres physically coherent, with a lasting influence on Arab and medieval European astronomy.

Light travels in straight lines from luminous bodies; it enters the eye and this is how vision is accomplished. The eye projects nothing toward objects.

All light, whether it comes from the sun, the moon, or a fire, spreads spherically from its source and can be studied through experiment and geometric demonstration.

Through the experiment of the camera obscura, one observes that light from the partially eclipsed sun produces a crescent-shaped image on the surface, conforming to the actual shape of the eclipse.

It is not fitting for a philosopher to trust an ancient author without examination; he must subject his claims to the test of reason and experience.

Ibn al-Haytham's birthplace, a major commercial and intellectual center of the Abbasid Empire in the 10th century, where he received his early training in philosophy and mathematics.

The Abbasid capital and hub of the translation of Greek works into Arabic. Ibn al-Haytham spent time there and gained access to the texts of Euclid and Ptolemy, which he would later critically examine.

The city where Ibn al-Haytham spent most of his adult life, wrote the Kitab al-Manazir, and worked at the Dar al-Hikma under the Fatimid Caliphate.

The river for which Ibn al-Haytham proposed a flood regulation project to Caliph Al-Hakim. After realizing the technical impossibility of the project, he feigned madness to avoid execution.

A box or darkened room pierced with a small hole allowing light to enter and project an inverted image. Ibn al-Haytham made it the central tool of his demonstrations on the rectilinear propagation of light.

A reflective instrument used by Ibn al-Haytham to study the properties of curved mirrors. His work on reflection and refraction influenced the construction of the first telescopes.

Ibn al-Haytham studied the refraction of light through transparent objects and described how a light ray changes direction when passing from one medium to another.

An astronomical instrument used to measure the altitude of celestial bodies. Ibn al-Haytham used it in his celestial observations and calculations on the height of Earth's atmosphere.

A writing medium on which Ibn al-Haytham recorded his experiments and geometric demonstrations. His more than two hundred treatises bear witness to a considerable intellectual output.

Ibn al-Haytham used water and glass as transparent media to precisely measure refraction angles and verify his laws on the behavior of light.