Book of Optics

Front page of a Latin edition of Alhazen's Thesaurus opticus, showing how Archimedes set on fire the Roman ships before Syracuse with the help of parabolic mirrors.

The Book of Optics (Arabic: Kitāb al-Manāẓir‎ (كتاب المناظر); Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis; Italian: Deli Aspecti) is a seven-volume treatise on optics and other fields of study composed by the medieval Muslim scholar Ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen (965– c. 1040 AD).

The Book of Optics presented experimentally founded arguments against the widely held extramission theory of vision (as held by Euclid in his Optica) and in favor of intromission theory, as supported by thinkers such as Aristotle, the now accepted model that vision takes place by light entering the eye. Alhazen's work transformed the way in which light and vision was understood, earning him the title the "father of modern optics"

English translations

• Sabra, A. I., ed. (1983), The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books I–II–III: On Direct Vision. The Arabic text, edited and with Introduction, Arabic-Latin Glossaries and Concordance Tables, Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters 
• Sabra, A. I., ed. (2002), The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham. Edition of the Arabic Text of Books IV–V: On Reflection and Images Seen by Reflection. 2 vols, Kuwait: The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters 
• Sabra, A. I., trans. (1989), The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham. Books I–II–III: On Direct Vision. English Translation and Commentary. 2 vols, Studies of the Warburg Institute, vol. 40, London: The Warburg Institute, University of London, ISBN 0-85481-072-2 
• Smith, A. Mark, ed. and trans. (2001), "Alhacen's Theory of Visual Perception: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of the First Three Books of Alhacen's De aspectibus, the Medieval Latin Version of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitāb al-Manāzir, 2 vols", written at Philadelphia, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) 91 (4–5), ISBN 0-87169-914-1, OCLC 47168716 
• Smith, A. Mark, ed. and trans. (2006), "Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection: A Critical Edition, with English Translation and Commentary, of Books 4 and 5 of Alhacen's De Aspectibus, the Medieval Latin version of Ibn-al-Haytham's Kitāb al-Manāzir, 2 vols", written at Philadelphia, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Soc.) 96 (2–3), ISBN 0-87169-962-1, OCLC 123464885 185359947 185359957 219328717 219328739 70078653 

See also

• Science in medieval Islam