lostislamichistory.com htt p:/ /lostislam ichistory .com/ibn-al-hay tham-the-f irst-scientist/ Ibn al -Hay tham – Th e First Scien tist When learning about the Muslim scholars of the past, it is easy to be amazed by their brilliance, accomplishments, and contributions to the modern world. Each provided a lasting legacy that changed the world in their time and today. One scientist in particular stands far above the rest. He is Ibn al-Haytham, the great polymath who lived from 965 to 1040. He was born in the Iraqi city of Basra during the Abbasid Caliphate. He came about 100 years after the establishment of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. U ndoubtedly the culture of learning and advancement present in the Muslim world at that time had a great impact on him from an early age. He studied Islamic sciences and soon became a mayor of the city of Basra. During this time, he continued to study, focusing on sciences and other empirical subjects. His big break, however, would come in another part of the Muslim world. Ibn al-Haytham in Egypt During his time as mayor of Basra, the Fatimid rival caliph in Egypt al-Hakim (the Fatimids were Ismaili Shias who rejected the caliphate of the Sunni Abbasids in Iraq) h eard o f an ide a that Ibn al-H aytham had to dam the Nile. Al-H akim w as a man ofcontrad ictions. Although he w as the leader of the her etical I smaili branch of Shiism that most sc holars of the day completely rejected, he opened up his domain to anyone who could benefit it. Al-Hakim invited Ibn al- Haytham to come to Egypt to attempt his radical idea to dam the Nile. After travelling down the Nile to see where a potential dam could be built, he realized his plan could not go into effect with the technology of the day. There happened to be one problem: al-Hakim was known to be act irrationally ruthless, and acted quite insane on occasion. In order to escap e some kind of punishment, I bn al-Haytham preten ded to be even more insane than al-Hakim himself! This daring idea saved him from excecution, but placed him under house arrest in Cairo for the remainder of al-Hakim’s life – 10 years. Those 10 years didn’t even seem as punishm ent to the brilliant sci entist. During this time, he got the peace and quiet he wanted to pursue his research. During this time, he dived into the study of light. He wanted to understand what light is, how it works, and how humans see objects. Although what he studied and discovered was truly revolutionary, the w ayhe researched w as one of his biggest contributions. The Scientifi c Method Today, it is understood to students of science that everything must be proven. You cannot make claims about scientific theories based on assumption without experimentation. Before Ibn al-Haytham, that was not the case. The ancient Greek philosophies of science still held weight. The Greeks believed that scientific fact can be discovered through reason, or simply attributed to the actions of the gods. Ibn al-Haytham knew better. He w as the first scientist in history to insist that everything be proven through a given method for discovering new information – the scientific method. Western textbooks today usually give little information about the history of the scientific method. Usually the ancient Greek philosophies are mentioned, followed by the “revolutionary” work of Roger Bacon, Galileo
