ABSTRACT
Alhazen (965-ca. 1040) Alhazen is the Latin form of Ibn al-Haytham, a Muslim astronomer and mathematician who was born in Basra, from whence he went to Egypt with an engineering mission to regulate the flow of the Nile. Quickly per suaded of the futility of the mission, Alhazen resigned. Soon afterwards, he feigned insan ity to avoid the caliph’s wrath. W ith the caliph’s death, Alhazen resumed his career. He is best known for a treatise on optics (including a theory of vision), twenty extant works on astronomical questions (including critiques of Ptolemy’s Almagest, Planetary Hypotheses, and Optics), and a long commen tary on the Almagest, which resulted in Alhazen being known as “the second Ptolemy.” O f his treatises, only On the Con figuration of the World was transmitted to the West during the Middle Ages.
