Tag Archives: University of Sharjah (UOS)

Copernicus’ cosmological model strongly influenced by ancient Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir?

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Caption: Ibn-al-shatir’s lunar model from which Copernicus is reported to have borrowed in composing his cosmological model. Credit: This work is in the public domain in the United States. Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Shatir#/media/File:Ibn-al-shatir2.gif

An April 14, 2025 University of Sharjah press release on EurekAlert puts forth a fascinating conjecture backed up by research, Note 1: Links have been removed; Note 2: “Did Copernicus Draw on a Medieval Arab Astronomer? New Study Highlights Striking Parallels” on medievalists.net sums up the researcher’s findings,,

New research has revealed that the cosmological model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus, the renowned European Renaissance polymath, bears striking resemblance to the one designed by an Arab astronomer nearly two centuries earlier.

Copernicus, a Polish astronomer who lived in the 16th century, is believed to be one of [sic] early European scientists to have put forward the theoretical model that the Sun was the center of the solar system, defying the church and the accepted wisdom that the Earth was the center of the universe.

Copernicus’s model is called sun-centered or heliocentric. In it, he challenges centuries-old science based on the teachings of Aristotle and Ptolemy, who thought the Earth was at rest at the center of the universe with other planets, including the sun, in its orbit.

The research conducted at the University of Sharjah is a comparative and analytical study which examines in parallel the writings of Copernicus in correlation with the works of the 14th century Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir.

A recently completed Ph.D. thesis posted to the Sharjah University Library website, the research textually and critically analyzes the contributions of the two scientists to see where they concur or diverge in presenting their theories despite a historical gap of more than 200 years between them.

Dr. Salama Al-Mansouri, the research’s author, places Ibn al-Shatir’s cosmological model at the forefront of astronomical achievements in the Islamic scientific tradition. “Ibn al-Shatir was the first astronomer to have successfully challenged the Ptolemaic cosmological system of planets revolving around Earth and corrected the theory’s inaccuracies about two centuries before Copernicus,” says Dr. Al-Mansouri.

The fact that Copernicus borrows from works of scientists and astronomers who preceded him is not new. However, the study highlights the significant similarities between Copernicus and Ibn al-Shatir, an engineer, mathematician and astronomer who was the timekeeper for the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

Correlating the two cosmological models, the study suggests Copernicus was heavily influenced by Ibn al-Shatir’s astronomy and his ideas that the Earth and other solar planets orbit the Sun.

“Ibn al-Shatir’s astronomical manuscripts, particularly his work in Nihāyat al-Sul, demonstrate planetary models that predate and closely mirror those later proposed by Copernicus, indicating a shared mathematical lineage,” says Mesut Idriz, University of Sharjah’s professor of history and Islamic civilization and one of the study’s supervisors.

Nihayat al-sul fi tashih al-usul or “The Final Quest Concerning the Rectification of Principles” is Ibn al-Shatir’s most influential and important astronomical treatise in which, according to the study, the Muslim scientist corrects and refines many of the Ptolemaic models of the Sun, Moon, and planets.

Prof. Idriz acknowledges the complexity of studies based on “historical astronomical manuscripts” as they need to combine a “unique intersection of expertise—astronomy, manuscript studies, and historiography. Muslim manuscript-based research is an intricate process that requires fluency in Arabic and Persian, the medium of writing for Muslim scientists.”

Interpreting medieval astronomical manuscripts is not an easy job as it demands methodological precision, tracing textual transmission, comparing mathematical formulations, and evaluating observational data. To surmount such a sophisticated multidisciplinary approach, Dr. Salama sought advice and assistance from the community of academics at the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology (SAASST), which has become a hub for renowned Arab and Muslim astronomers and scientists.

Dr. Salama conducts a critical textual analysis between Copernicus’s most famous work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres – a landmark in the history of science, which triggered the so-called Copernican Revolution – and the astronomical manuscripts of Ibn al-Shatir, particularly his Nihayat al-sul fi tashih al-usul.

The study reveals compelling correlations, underscoring the pivotal role of manuscript translation and transmission in the evolution of heliocentric theory and the assessment of the role the unraveling of Muslim manuscripts can play in rectifying historical inaccuracies about the history of science.

On the importance of the correlations between the work of Copernicus and that of Ibn al-Shatir, Mashhoor Al-Wardat, professor of astrophysics at SAASST, says, “The striking similarity between the planetary models developed by Ibn al-Shatir and Copernicus, particularly those concerning the orbits of Mercury and the Moon, provides clear evidence of Copernicus’s reliance on Ibn al-Shatir’s work …This raises profound questions about the transmission of knowledge from Islamic civilization to Europe and about the roots of modern astronomy.”

Dr. Salama provides an overview of Arabic manuscripts and their Latin translations in European archives in Kraków in Poland, and the Vatican, where Copernicus made his most outstanding contribution to astronomy. She finds that Ibn al-Shatir’s treatise Nihayat al-sul fi tashih al-usul was among the archives. She goes on, “Though in its original Arabic version, the manuscript could not have escaped the attention of a scholar like Copernicus.”

The study provides no definitive proof that Copernicus had read Iban al-Shatir’s works as there were no Latin translations of Ibn al-Shatir’s writings accessible to the researcher. However, the research posits that the Polish astronomer most probably had access to Ibn al-Shatir’s ideas through “intermediary channels” given the strong resemblance between their interpretations and mathematical calculations of planets orbiting the Sun.

The textual parallels between the two astronomers, according to the study, are most noticeable in “the identical calculations and results … imply(ing) that Copernicus may have adapted Ibn al-Shatir’s techniques” in developing “his philosophical shift to heliocentrism” a model which the study admits was Copernicus’s own invention.

However, the study sheds light on areas where Copernicus’s theory draws directly on Ibn al-Shatir. It mentions the lunar model in which the Muslim astronomer uses epicycles to correct Ptolemy’s exaggerated lunar distance variations.

“This is nearly identical to Copernicus’s lunar model in De Revolutionibus,” the study notes. “Both reduced the lunar distance fluctuation from Ptolemy’s factor of two to a more accurate range, relying on similar geometric constructions.

“For Mercury and the inner planets, Copernicus’s use of secondary epicycles and the Tusi-couple-like mechanism echoes Ibn al-Shatir’s approach. Ibn al-Shatir’s Mercury model, with its multiplication of epicycles to eliminate eccentrics, reappears in Copernicus’s work.”

Ibn al-Shatir is also celebrated for his Tusi-couple, a mathematical technique and an innovative mathematical device in which he employs additional epicycles to eliminate the equant—a problematic feature of Ptolemy’s system.

The Tusi-couple derives its name from Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, a 13th century Muslim polymath whose writings show the most accurate tables in antiquity of planetary motions, an updated planetary model, as well as penetrating critiques of Ptolemaic astronomy.

Ibn al-Shatir’s use of the Tusi-couple to simulate linear motion influenced Copernicus who produced similar adjustments, though Copernicus applied them within a heliocentric framework, the study notes.

Writes the study’s author, “Both astronomers (Copernicus and Ibn al-Shatir) replaced Ptolemy’s equant with additional circular motions, achieving uniform motion without an artificial reference point.

“Ibn al-Shatir’s solar model, with a new eccentricity and epicycles yielding a maximum solar equation of 2;2,6°, parallels Copernicus’s solar calculations. This suggests Copernicus may have adopted Ibn al-Shatir’s numerical tables or methods, adapting them to his Sun-centered system.”

Asked whether she thinks Copernicus loaned [sic] at least parts of his theory from Ibn al-Shatir, Dr. Salama adds, “Our analysis reveals that Ibn al-Shatir’s treatise, though geocentric in intent, produced results so aligned with heliocentrism that Copernicus’s debt to him is undeniable—two centuries of separation could not erase this intellectual kinship.”

The research findings apparently seek to rectify what the author perceives as a historical oversight by Western scholars, who are frequently alleged in current Arab and Muslim science literature to have mostly Eurocentric tendencies, marginalizing contributions of Muslim astronomers like Ibn al-Shatir in favor of European figures like Copernicus.

The study is of significant implications to the history of science in the Middle Ages and the European Renaissance. By demonstrating parallels between Ibn al-Shatir’s and Copernicus’s work, the study challenges this Eurocentric narrative that the heliocentric revolution was a solely European achievement.

In the meantime, it underscores the Islamic Golden Age’s role in laying mathematical and observational foundations, prompting historians to reconsider the global flow of scientific knowledge.

The research goes as far as highlighting the need to update science curricula to reflect a more inclusive history, acknowledging contributions from non-Western scholars.

Of the significance of the study, Prof. Hamid al-Naimiy, a renowned astronomer and the research’s main supervisor, said, “This study is a clarion call to rewrite the history of astronomy, ensuring that the brilliance of Muslim scholars like Ibn al-Shatir stands alongside Copernicus in our collective narrative of scientific progress.”

Asked about his opinion of Ibn al-Shatir’s cosmological model, Prof al-Naimiy, who is also Sharjah University’s Chancellor and SAASST’s director, said the Muslim astronomer was a pioneer in Islamic scientific tradition and his treatise “shows that he dismantled the Ptolemaic model and corrected its flaws two centuries before Copernicus. This work emphasizes the significant contributions of our heritage to global astronomy.”

Says Dr. Salama, “Ibn al-Shatir’s empirical refinements within a geocentric framework, paralleled by Copernicus’s adaptation, illustrate how incremental improvements can precede paradigm shifts,” adding that her research “offers a model for modern science, where foundational work in one context can catalyze breakthroughs in another.”

Dr. Salama makes a compelling case for reassessing Copernicus’ work. She also raised a few more questions. Perhaps it’s due to my ignorance but I wonder about using the descriptors ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ synonymously’. At a guess, during Ibn al-Shatir’s lifetime the two may well have been synonymous although you don’t see religion and national group (for want of a better term) used synonymously with European scientists of any period. It suggests additional interesting questions (to me anyway) about religion and about other identifications and the relationship between them with science.

The study “The Latest on the heliocentric theory as explained by Ibn al-Shater and Copernicus: a comparative analytical study” is available here but you do need Arabic language skills to access it.

Arabic manuscript containing lost works of Apollonius discussed in new book about Middle Eastern science (etc.) scholarship

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This February 4, 2025 news item is essentially a book announcement but what makes it exceptionally interesting is how one of history’s great mathematicians had some of his work preserved in an Arabic manuscript, Note: Links have been removed,

Scientists say that the two lost, but extremely important books by Apollonius, the Greek mathematician known to the ancient world as “The Great Geometer,” have survived in an Arabic manuscript kept under lock and key as part of the prized possessions of the Leiden University Libraries in Holland.

The revelation is made in a new volume of 50 chapters titled “Prophets, Poets and Scholars” and published recently by Leiden University Press.

Apollonius (262 BC–190 BC) is believed to be one of Greece’s greatest mathematicians and is renowned for his hugely influential book, “The Conics of Apollonius” in which he introduces the terms hyperbola, ellipse, and parabola.

…

A February 4, 2025 University of Sharjah press release on EurekAlert delves more deeply into the topic,

According to the volume, “The Conics of Apollonius (c. 2.00 BCE) was one of the most profound works of ancient Greek mathematics. The work deals with the theory of ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas – the curves which you can see if you shine a flashlight on a wall.” Apollonius’s work comprises eight books, but only the first four were available to European scholars during the Renaissance.

The lost books – 5 and 7 – were brought to the Leiden University by the famous Dutch orientalist and mathematician Jacob Golius who had bought them for the university as part of a collection of nearly 200 manuscripts during his various voyages to the Middle East.

The 50 chapters in the book touch on the history of the Netherlands’ relationships with the orient, particularly the Middle East and North Africa, emphasizing that the first encounters with Arabic manuscripts occurred in the early 17th century.

The 17th century saw the first Dutchman, Thomas Erpenius, gaining pre-eminence in oriental studies. “He concentrated on Arabic text editions, primers for students and most importantly an Arabic grammar that would remain in use as a standard work for more than two centuries,” the volume’s editors write in their introductory chapter.

But the first Dutch “to have ever set foot in the Middle east or North Africa was … Jacobus Golius (1596-1667).  On his travels he bought more than 200 Middle Eastern manuscripts for Leiden University,” say the editors. However, “Golius’s fame rests mainly on his lexicon Arabian-Latinum, a large folio volume printed by the then firm of Elzevier in 1653.  The work is based on the Arabic lexicographical manuscripts that he had acquired on his travels.”

It is the manuscripts which Golius purchased for the Leiden University Libraries that attract the attention of numerous scholars who have contributed to the volume. For instance, a chapter focuses on an 11th century Arabic manuscript, which is a translation of the lost mathematical works attributed to Apollonius. In the meantime, the essay dwells on four other Arabic manuscripts bought by Golius to present some aspects of the scientific traditions prevalent in the heyday of Arab and Muslims civilization.

The Arabic translation of Apollonius is fascinating, Dutch mathematician and historian of science, Jan Pieter Hogendijk, says in an email interview, adding that besides its exact science, it is adorned with colored images and written in skillful Arabic calligraphy. “The calligraphy in some of these manuscripts is wonderful and also the geometrical figures were written with extreme care.

“They (manuscripts) are a witness of the mental abilities, discipline, power of concentration, will power and so on which the scientists and also the scribes possessed, and which modern people, spoiled by their gadgets, mobile phones, and so on, do not possess anymore.”

The volume, according to the editors, “serves as an introduction to more than fifty contributions of scholars and librarians who are intimately familiar with diverse aspects of the collections (of Leiden University Libraries), both ancient and modern.”

The volume is a nice read as it is written for the public. It is luxuriously illustrated with ancient maps, images, and extracts from Arabic, Turkish and Persian manuscripts. Besides accounts and analyses of scientific traditions prevalent among Arabs and Muslims in the Middle Ages, the volume narrates some fantasy tales from Arabic travel literature, which still captivate the mind.

In their studies and analyses, the scientists find that their authors would often add an entertaining touch mingled with fantasy to their narrative. “They (the texts) were often mixed with legendary accounts, especially in reports about the outer edges of the known world, where the laws of nature were no longer fixed and strange things might occur.

“There women might grow on trees, people might have arms where we have our ears, and might come across islands exclusively inhabited either by women or by men. All this has left its traces in the Middle Eastern written heritage, and also in the accompanying pictorial tradition.”

In the section dedicated to Arabic manuscripts and titled “The Great Arabic Heritage,” there is emphasis on cosmography besides astronomy, mathematics, zoology, botany, planetology, among other sciences.

There is emphasis on a renowned Muslim cosmographer Ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini’s “Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa Khraib al-Mawjudat (Wonders of Creations and Rarities of Extant Beings), an encyclopedic work which, according to the volume tackles “the humble creatures such as fleas, worms and lice to exotic animals surrounded by mystery and legends.”

Some creatures can be merely fantasy beings like the turtle which “sailors moored their ship on it, taking the motionless animal that had become overgrown with vegetation for an island” – reminiscent of the creatures one comes across in the famous Travels of Sindbad the Sailor.

However, as one of the fascinating chapters in the volume underscores, “sometimes one has to rid oneself of preconceived ideas to understand the descriptions. Such a case is a sea creature described by Qazwini, … its face is like that of man, it has a white beard, its body looks like that of a frog, its hair is like a cow’s and its size like that of a calf. It takes us a moment to see that this is a perfectly adequate description of some kind of seal.”

Mostafa Zahri, University of Sharjah Professor of numerical analysis and mathematical modeling, says the prized possessions of “Arabic manuscripts in Western libraries like Leiden University Libraries serve as invaluable records of Islamic civilization’s intellectual achievements, especially in mathematics and geometry.

“Western institutions, besides Leiden University, namely the British Library, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, house thousands of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman manuscripts containing rare geometric treatises. These collections bridge historical and modern scholarships.”

However, and despite the wealth of knowledge they hold, many manuscripts remain understudied and only greater collaboration, digitization, and accessibility between Western and Arab scholars could unlock their full historical and mathematical value, says Prof. Zahri.

In an email interview, Wilfred de Graaf, Education Coordinator at Utrecht University concurs, emphasizing that only a small portion of collections of Arabic and Islamic manuscript texts have been studied. He attributes the scarcity of studies in this sphere to the lack of scholars in the West who are fluent in oriental language like Arabic, Persian and Turkish, in which most Islamic manuscripts are written.

Nonetheless, he adds that more and more ancient texts are unraveled assisting scholars to obtain “a general view of the development of science in the Islamic tradition. “In the West, there is an interest in the Islamic scientific tradition, not only because of it being crucial for the development of science in Europe between the 11th and 14th century, but also because of the intrinsic nature of its contributions.”

Mesut Idriz, Sharjah University’s Professor of Islamic civilization, says bringing Arabic and Islamic manuscripts to life is among the hardest labors social science researchers face. “Islamic manuscript studies require a nuanced understanding of both the textual and scientific traditions they encapsulate.

“The study of Islamic manuscripts demands specialized knowledge, encompassing paleography, historical context, linguistic expertise, and scientific specialization—areas that are often underdeveloped among contemporary researchers and academics.”

Drawing on Leiden University Libraries’ Arabic manuscripts, a team of Western scientists held a workshop at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates in January 2025 to teach participants the method by which Arab and Muslim scientists wrote numbers in a numeral system called abjad, in reference to the Arabic alphabet, a right-to-left script.

The abjad is a numeral system in which the first of the 28-letter Arabic alphabet ‘alif’ represents 1, and the second letter ‘baa’ is 2 up to 9. The other letters stand for nine intervals of 10s and then those of 100s ending with 1000.

“The scientists in the Islamic tradition used abjad in combination with the sexagesimal system which is still used today for time (hours, minutes and seconds) and angles (degrees, arc minutes and arc seconds),” Wilfred, who organized the workshop, said.

This is the second workshop in nearly two months Western scientists hold [sic] at the University of Sharjah to present Arabic manuscripts to the Arab academic community and demonstrate the uses Arab and Muslim scientific instruments were put to in the Middle Ages. In them, the participants were made to read in detail the abjad numbers on an early astrolabe, an Arabic astronomical instrument.

Besides the Arabic manuscript in which the two lost works of Apollonius were found, there are extracts and studies in the volume tackling a variety of scientific traditions prevalent among the Arabs in the Middle Ages.

One chapter analyzes a figure from an 11th century manuscript attributed to al-Mu’taman ibn Hud, King of Saragossa between 1081 and 1085. The chapter shows how Muslim scientists managed to solve an ancient Greek geometry puzzle nearly half a millennium before a solution to the same problem was found in Europe. Muslim scientists’ solution of the puzzle, according to the chapter, “is part of a huge mathematical encyclopedia called the Book of Perfections of which a small fragment has been preserved.”

Quoting from yet another 14th century Arabic manuscript, the chapter shows how Muslim scientists could determine the geographical coordinates of no less than 160 cities with a high degree of accuracy and minimum error margin.

“The names of the cities appear in black and the numbers in red are the longitudes in degrees and minutes, and the latitude in degrees and minutes,” says Prof. Hogendijk. “The numbers are written in the alphabetical abjad system used by most astronomers, in which a numerical value is attributed to each letter. The first column begins with localities in the two provinces of Western and Eastern Azerbaijan in modern Iran.”

The book, “Prophets, Poets and Scholars; The Collections of the Middle Eastern Library of Leiden University” Editor: Arnoud Vrolijk, Kasper van Ommen, Karin Scheper & Tijmen Baarda, can be found on its Leiden University Press publication order page.

11th century Arab-Muslim optical scientist laid groundwork for modern-day physics

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An April 15, 2024 news item on phys.org announces research into how an Arab scientist’s studies into optics established the basis for modern day physics,

Scientists from the University of Sharjah [United Arab Emirates] and the Warburg Institute [University of London, UK] are poring over the writings of an 11th-century Arab-Muslim polymath to demonstrate their impact on the development of optical sciences and how they have fundamentally transformed the history of physics from the Middle Ages up to modern times in Europe.

…

Caption: Ibn al-Haytham (“Alhasen”) on the left pedestal of reason [while Galileo is on the right pedestal of the senses] as shown on the frontispiece of the Selenographia (Science of the Moon; 1647) of Johannes HeveliusIbn al-Haytham (“Alhasen”) on the left pedestal of reason [while Galileo is on the right pedestal of the senses] as shown on the frontispiece of the Selenographia (Science of the Moon; 1647) of Johannes Hevelius Credit: Public domain provided by the author

A May 6, 2024 University of Sharjah press release on EurekAlert, which originated the news item, delves further into the topic, Note 1: Why there’s such a large discrepancy in the publication dates for the press release is a mystery to me; Note 2: Links have been removed,

Their research focuses on the legacy of al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham known in Latin as “Alhazen” and particularly his most influential work titled Book of Optics, reputed in Arabic as Kitab al-Manazir and first circulated in Europe via its Latin translation dubbed ‘Perspectiva’. Ibn al-Haytham was born in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 965 during the Abbasid Caliphate.

The divisions IV-V of this authoritative book have been recently translated into English from Arabic and published by the Warburg Institute under the title “The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books IV–V: On Reflection and Images Seen by Reflection”. Having already rendered divisions I-III into English, the Warburg Institute is bringing together a wide-ranging network of scientists “for a collaborative humanities-science investigation of [Ibn] al-Haytham and the questions his work provokes.“

The role of Alhazen [Ibn al-Haytham] in these processes is simultaneously well-known, but limited; only half of his scientific works have English translation and a quarter are not yet edited.”

Introducing the new translation, the Warburg Institute describes Ibn al-Haytham as “perhaps the greatest mathematician and physicist of the medieval Arabic/Islamic world. His reputation is based not only on the vast amount of material he was able to process, but also on his rigorous scientific methodology.

“He (Ibn al-Haytham) deals with both the mathematics of rays of light and the physical aspects of the eye in seven comprehensive books. His reinstatement of the entire science of optics sets the scene for the whole of the subsequent development of the subject … influencing figures such as William of Ockham, [Johannes] Kepler, [René] Descartes, and Christaan Huygens.”

Professor Nader El-Bizri of Sharjah University’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences has just published an academic review of the Warburg Institute’s translation of Ibn al-Haytham. The article, printed in the International Journal of the Classical Tradition, highlights the strong influence the Arab-Muslim optical scientist has exerted over the ages up to the present day.

Ibn al-Haytham’s Book of Optics, Prof. El-Bizri writes, “constituted a monumental foundational opus in the history of science and the visual arts from the Middle Ages to the early modern period in the European milieu and the Islamicate context … The reception of Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics in the European milieu took place from the High Middle Ages via Gerard of Cremona’s Toledo circle in terms of its Latinate translations, and subsequent influence on Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit opticians across Europe.“

It influenced François d’Aguilon’s Opticorum libri sex within the Antwerp Jesuit mathematical school and had a direct impact on Johannes Hevelius’s Selenographia. The Optics was also consulted by Girard Desargues, René Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Christaan Huygens.”

Prof. El-Bizri works closely with the Warburg Institute assisting its attempts to reintroduce Ibn al-Haytham to the west. “A remarkable thinker, not only did Ibn al-Haytham revolutionize optical thought by mathematising its study, [but] his thinking also went on to have similar revolutionary effects in medieval Europe.”

The Warburg Institute is investing in rendering the writings of Ibn al-Haytham on optics into English, which Prof. El-Bizri describes as “voluminous”. “Ibn al-Haytham’s Book of Optics indicates with evidence the impact of Arabic sciences and philosophy on the history of science and the architectural and visual arts in Europe, as well as demonstrating how science and the arts influence each other in the manner the studies of optics in their mathematized physics inspired the invention of projective geometric constructions of perspective as a novel Renaissance method of painting and architectural design.”

Prof. El-Bizri adds “The impact of this book is fundamental not only in the history of science from the High Middle Ages till the early-modern period in Europe, but it was also foundational for architecture and the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance and up till the late Baroque era. Moreover, it has further significance in modern conceptions of the mathematization of physics, the reliance on experimentation in science, and the philosophical analysis of perception.”

Asked about the importance of translating Ibn al-Haytham into English despite the lapse of nearly 1000 years, Prof. El-Bizri says the Arab-Muslim scientist’s theories and methodologies, specifically those dealing with optics are still considered “seminal” in the literature. Ibn al-Haytham has had a “foundational impact on the history of science and the arts in Europe.”

The influence of Ibn al-Haytham’s writings in the European milieu, according to Prof. El-Bizri, cannot be overlooked. The Arab-Muslim scientist had “a notable effect on Biagio Pelacani da Parma’s Questiones super perspectiva communi, Leon Battista Alberti’s De pictura, Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Commentarii, culminating in the first printed Latin version in the publication of Friedrich Risner’s Opticae thesaurus in the sixteenth century.“

Then, in the seventeenth century, it influenced François d’Aguilon’s Opticorum libri sex within the Antwerp Jesuit mathematical school and had a direct impact on Johannes Hevelius’s Selenographia.”.

In the Book of Optics, notes Prof. El-Bizri, Ibn al-Haytham establishes an “inventive and precise scientific experimental method (al-iʿtibār al-muḥarrar) with its controlled verificative repeated testing, as framed by isomorphic compositions between physics and mathematics.”

He adds that Ibn al-Haytham in his Optics “aims at elucidating the nature of visual perception through studies on the anatomy and physiology of the eyes, the optic nerves and the frontal part of the brain, along with cognitive psychology and the analysis of psychosomatic ocular motor kinaesthetic acts”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper, Note: This is one of the more unusual citation I have hrere,

The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books IV–V: On Reflection and Image by N. El-Bizri. Seen by Reflection, translated from the Arabic by Abdelhamid I. Sabra and prepared for publication by Jan P. Hogendijk (Warburg Institute Studies and Texts, 8), London: University of London Press in association with the Warburg Institute, 2023, pp. xiv+343, ISBN 978-1908590589, £90. Int class trad 31, 116–119 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-024-00654-4 Published: 20 February 2024 Issue Date: March 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

I was a little curious about the Warburg Institute and found out more on their About Us webpage,

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of art and culture. Its collections, courses and programmes are dedicated to the study of global cultural history and the role of images in society. Founded in Hamburg at the turn of the twentieth century by historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929), the Institute was established to trace the roots of the Renaissance in ancient civilisations and ended up changing the way we see the world around us.

The Warburg Institute owes its mission—and its very existence—to the open movement of people, collections and ideas. Sent into exile when the Nazis came to power, the Institute was transferred to England in 1933 and became part of the University of London in 1944. It has served, during a turbulent century, as a creative crucible for scholars, curators, artists and all those whose work sits outside traditional academic structures.

The Warburg’s unique Library, Archive and Photographic Collection form a holistic, associative engine for exploring the histories of the arts and sciences—linking the textual and the visual, the intellectual and the social, the scientific and the magical. Following an extensive renovation of the Institute’s building in Bloomsbury, new spaces for exhibitions and events have restored the Institute’s original emphasis on discovery, display and debate and are bringing its holdings and programmes to new audiences.

Building on Aby Warburg’s belief that the memory of the past activates the present, the Warburg examines the movement of culture across barriers – of time, space and discipline -to inspire, inform and connect.

There you have it.