← Explore on the interactive map

Islamic Optics Research Heritage

Type Object Region Islamic world Time c. 900

Islamic optics absorbed Greek works by Euclid and Ptolemy, and in the 10th–11th centuries Ibn al-Haytham and others revolutionized theories of vision…

Timeline

  1. c. 900–980Baghdad · IraqScholars such as al-Kindi translated and commented on Euclid's Optics and Ptolemy's optical works, systematizing theories of reflection, refraction, and vision in Arabic, laying textual and conceptual groundwork for later experimental optics.
  2. c. 1001–1010Basra · IraqAround 1001–1010 CE, Ibn al-Haytham completed the core chapters of the Book of Optics in Basra, verifying the rectilinear propagation of light through dark-room pinhole experiments, proposing a visual theory in which objects reflect light to stimulate the retina, and systematically treating geometric laws of reflection and refraction.
  3. c. 1200–1400Toledo · SpainThe Book of Optics was translated into Latin in the 12th–13th centuries (as Alhazen), profoundly influencing medieval European scholars such as Roger Bacon and Witelo, and becoming one of the principal textual sources of optical knowledge before the Scientific Revolution.

Sources