Ibn al-Haytham by Rashed, Roshdi;

Short description:

Ibn al-Haytham: The Emergence of Scientific Modernity?offers the first comprehensive monograph on one of the most brilliant figures of the medieval intellectual world.

Long description:

Ibn al-Haytham: The Emergence of Scientific Modernity offers the first comprehensive monograph on one of the most brilliant figures of the medieval intellectual world.

Spanning his groundbreaking contributions in mathematics, optics, astronomy, and natural philosophy, this book portrays Ibn al-Haytham as he was seen in his own time: a man of universal learning whose methods, sources, and intellectual reputation resonated far beyond his era. Moving beyond the familiar terrain of his Kit?b al-Man??ir (Book of Optics), it places his achievements in a much wider context, examining his lesser-studied writings on geometry, mechanics, and scientific method. Through a systematic analysis of these works, the book demonstrates how Ibn al-Haytham?s experimental rigor, mathematical formalism, and critical engagement with earlier Greek and Arabic sources foreshadowed core principles of the European Scientific Revolution. It shows how his insistence on verification through observation and reasoning forged a distinctive approach that inspired thinkers from medieval Cairo to Renaissance Europe.

An essential resource for historians of science, Islamic studies scholars, and anyone interested in the intellectual foundations of modernity, this volume restores Ibn al-Haytham to his rightful place as a pioneering figure in the history of ideas and a bridge between classical learning and the birth of modern science.

Table of Contents:

Contents

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Foreword

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Introduction. Ibn al-Haytham: from basra to cairo.???????????????? ???????????

PART ONE:?MATHEMATICS

Chapter I: Quadrature of lunes and of the circle

Chapter II: Finding surface areas and volumes of solids bounded by curves

II. 1: Euclid, Elements X, proposition 1

II. 2: On the measurement of the paraboloid

II. 3: The volume of the sphere

Chapter III: Isoperimetric and isepiphanic figures

Chapter IV: Conic sections: theory and applications. 1

Chapter V: Conic sections: theory and applications. 2.

Conic sections and geometrical constructions

V. 1: The construction of the regular heptagon

V. 2: On the construction of the heptagon in a circle

V. 3: The division of Archimedes' straight line

V. 4: On a solid numerical problem

Chapter VI: Point-to-point transformations and the new geometrical discipline: the knowns

Chapter VII: Number Theory

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PART TWO: OPTICS

Chapter VIII: The reform of optics

VIII. 1: Light and vision

VIII. 2: Light and colours

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Chapter IX: Catoptrics, anaclastics and dioptrics

IX. 1: Reflection

IX. 2: Refraction

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Chapter X: Burning mirrors, anaclastics and dioptrics

X. 1: Burning mirrors in the ninth to the eleventh centuries: From anaclastics to dioptrics

X. 1. 1: Al-Kind?, Ibn L?q? and their successors

X. 1. 2: Ibn Sahl and Ibn al-Haytham

X. 1. 3: The heirs of Ibn al-Haytham?s research on anaclastics in Arabic and in Latin

X. 2: Ibn Sahl: The geometrical theory of lenses

X. 3: Ibn al-Haytham and the development of dioptrics

X. 4: The burning sphere and the introduction of algorithmic methods : Kam?l al-D?n al-F?ris?

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PART THREE: ASTRONOMY

Chapter XI: Ibn al-Haytham?s new astronomy

XI. 1: Ibn al-Haytham?s work in astronomy

XI. 2: The Configuration of the motions of each of the seven wandering stars

XI. 2. 1: On the variety of the heights

XI. 2. 2: On the hour lines

XI. 2. 3: On the correction of operations in astronomy

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Chapter XII: The structure of The Configuration of the motions

XII. 1: Research on variations

XII. 2: Planetary theory

XII. 2. 1: The apparent motion of the heavenly bodies

XII. 2. 1. 1: The apparent motion of the noon between its rising and its meridian passage

XII. 2. 1. 2: The apparent motion of the sun between its rising and its meridian passage

XII. 2. 1. 3: The apparent motion of each of the five planets between its rising and its meridian passage

XII. 2. 2: The inclination of the wandering stars with respect to the equator

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PART FOUR: PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS

Chapter XIII: Principles and fundamental concepts of mathematics : magnitudes

XIII. 1: The concept of magnitude

XIII. 2: The comparison of magnitudes

XIII. 3: The concept of spatiality: place

XIII. 4: Parallel lines

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Chapter XIV: Methods of proof and of discovery

XIV. 1: The analytic art

XIV. 2: Direct demonstration and apagogic demonstration

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX