2015/06/01 by Massimo Guarnieri · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Arts and Humanities · #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #History and Developments in Astronomy #History of Science and Medicine #Galileo (satellite navigation) #Polymath #Physical optics #Physics #Art history #Classics #History #Optics #Geography
paper · doi:10.1109/mie.2015.2421754
openalex publication_date 2015/06/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated 2015 the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies [1]. Those of us who remember the exceptional contributions to science made by James Clerk Maxwell can be led to believe that UNESCO's choice is related to the publication of A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field in 1865, 150 years ago. As a matter of fact, in his book, Maxwell was able to deduce the existence of electromagnetic waves, traveling as fast as light, a strong clue that light had an electromagnetic nature. However, UNESCO looked much further back. It focused on when the seeds of the modern knowledge on light were laid, with the seminal research developed 1,000 years ago by Iraqi polymath and philosopher Ibn al-Haytham(Latinized as Alhazen, 965-1039), at a time when Muslim science was at its peak [2]. In fact, besides studying astronomy, mathematics, and meteorology, and exploring the scientific method six centuries before Galileo Galilei, al-Haytham, developed seminal research on optics and vision around 1015. He wrote more than 200 books (partially survived), including a treatise on optics, namely, the seven volumes Kitab al-Manazir, (i.e., Book of Optics), written between 1011 and 1021.