The most important human being that you have never heard about

This man amazes me. I think that if you read about him you will also find him amazing. I have never heard of him before and I think you probably have not either. His name is Alhazen, short for Ibn al-Haytham. All of the information is taken from the Wikipedia page here. This is the link.

en.wikipedia.org...

He is credited for inventing the scientific method.
He beat Sir Isaac Newton to the concept of inertia.
He is also credited with inventing experimental physics.
He is the founder of experimental psychology.
He is described as "the First Scientist".
A pioneer in the study of consciousness.
He also made many significant contributions to the principles of anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

He has done so much and written so many books that we only have 55 of the some 200 books that he wrote. And many of the books we do have are yet to be still translated. This guy could have so many more scientific discoveries waiting to come to light. I hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I did. I will leave you with a quote from him which I think is a very powerful statement from a man who lived so long ago.

Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.

- Alhazen

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[edit on Mon Mar 16 2009 by Jbird]

That was a good read. Brilliant man indeed.

If his bones/hair are still around maybe we can create a clone. Hopefully the new brain will be just as good, maybe even better.

I agree. That would be a good use of cloning technology (even though there aren't many humane ones)

Fascinating reading. Islamic science was very advanced during the middle age. It is sad that the western world did not (and still don't IMHO) recognize the important discoveries they made.

I think we all know why.

Pretty crazy, I've read a lot of science texts and have never heard of this guy.
He's pretty damn impressive.

reply to post by TurkeyBurgers


Thanks for the read. Very interesting man indeed, and one I too am not familiar with. I find it interesting he was able to do what he did under house arrest and under the pretense of madness. Pretty cool story - eh Hollywood?

ColoradoJens

reply to post by grandnic


The man, Al hazan was from Basra (Iraq), born 965 ad. Most of his work was in Cairo. At a time when most of Europe was in the middle ages and science was in its infancy Al hazan was doing significant wark in many fields including physics and astronomy.

His work needs to be credited but it brings up again the larger question of why Islamics did not succeed in the scientific world, why they did not persue their initial superiority in the sciences as was later done in the Christian world 3 or 4 centries later.

Today there is a general perception by Islamics that the Koran is the last word and the only book man needs. Apparently this wasn't necessarily the teachings of Mohamed but never the less a concept started many hundreds of years ago and certainly alive and well today.

BTW does anyone care to guess what country is by far the most influential and advanced Islamic country in the Islamic world today?

Originally posted by TurkeyBurgers

Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.

Taking Alhazan's insight deep into my heart would make me question every word he wrote and every idea he came up with. I guess more folks followed his advice, coz I never heard about Alhazan before. I guess that's because the questioning and the attacks are not over yet.

there are a number of Sufis who were very advanced for their time. Ibn Arabi for example.

The father of Information Processing, Raymond Lully, got a considerable amount of his knowledge from Sufis. You probably never heard of him either...

Now Sufism is considered heretical by Fundamentalist Muslims. Of course, Islam has entered its own Middle Ages by rejecting what Truth it did have.

BTW does anyone care to guess what country is by far the most influential and advanced Islamic country in the Islamic world today?

reply to post by plumranch


That would be Turkey! Modern day center of the former Ottoman empire. Most modern, culturally liberal, leader of the Islamic world. If innovation is to come, it will likely be from Turkey.