# Mathematician:Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham

## Mathematician

Persian philosopher, scientist and all-round genius who made significant contributions to number theory and geometry.

His work influenced the work of René Descartes and the calculus of Isaac Newton.

Persian

## History

• Born: 965, in Basra, Persia (now Iraq)
• Died: c. 1039, in Cairo, Egypt

## Publications

• Analysis and Synthesis, in which he discussed perfect numbers
• Opuscula, in which he used the result now known as Wilson's Theorem
• Book of Optics
• Balance of Wisdom
• Corrections to the Almagest
• Discourse on Place
• Exact Determination of the Pole
• Exact Determination of the Meridian
• Finding the Direction of Qibla by Calculation
• Horizontal Sundials
• Hour Lines
• Doubts Concerning Ptolemy
• Maqala fi'l-Qarastun
• On Completion of the Conics
• On Seeing the Stars
• On Squaring the Circle
• On the Burning Sphere
• On the Configuration of the World
• On the Form of Eclipse
• On the Light of Stars
• On the Light of the Moon
• On the Milky Way
• On the Nature of Shadows
• On the Rainbow and Halo
• Resolution of Doubts Concerning the Almagest
• Resolution of Doubts Concerning the Winding Motion
• The Correction of the Operations in Astronomy
• The Different Heights of the Planets
• The Direction of Mecca
• The Model of the Motions of Each of the Seven Planets
• The Model of the Universe
• The Motion of the Moon
• The Ratios of Hourly Arcs to their Heights
• The Winding Motion
• Treatise on Light
• Treatise on Place
• Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals

Approximately $50$ of the supposedly $200$ or so works of his survive. Not all have been studied and translated.

## Also known as

Full name:

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham

In Arabic:

ابو علي، حسن بن حسن بن الهيثم

In Persian:

ابن هیثم

Best known as Alhacen or (deprecated) Alhazen.